Naruto Suijin
by y0sh
Summary: Naruto learns about his heritage early on. Understanding, that there's more to a shinobi than jutsu, he trains hard, to one day surpass all previous Hokage. With the help of his friends and senseis, he plans to make his parents proud. Strong!Naruto, semi-smart!Naruto, Water-affinity!Naruto, Fuinjutsu!Naruto, NarutoxIzumi(OC), Rated M for language, gore and possible Lemons
1. Heritage discovered

Welcome to my first story!

At the end of this chapter, there's a huge author's note, since there're a few things I want to say. I don't like for a story I'm reading to take an unexpected turn into weirdness. In order for you guys to see what you can expect, I'll outline my story a little (timeline included).

[content] is for stuff I added in notes after the rewrite.

[After looking over the story again and again for some time now, I'm not in the mood to go through it again, so there might some errors due to the rewrite. I'll go over it in the next days, but I want to get the new chapter out, so screw that..]

LOOKING FOR BETA!

I don't own Naruto!

Chapter 1

 _11\. December 1296 A.S._

Seven years old Naruto Uzumaki was grumbling to himself while riffling through the stuff in the storage room of the Hokage Tower. Really, why did his ji-san have to punish him for a harmless, little prank. Given it was the seventh this month and he got off the other times, he could admit to himself, that he might have deserved it a little bit. However, clearing up the storage room was much too cruel, at least in Naruto's humble opinion. And anyway, what was he supposed to do all day. It was still over half a year, until he could enrol at the shinobi academy.

Naruto is an orphan, both his parents perished in the Kyūbi attack seven years ago, and for some reason people didn't like him. He didn't remember much about his first six years spent in one of Konoha's orphanages. After _the incident_ on his sixth birthday, his ji-san gave him an apartment and a stipend to live by. At first, he had been ecstatic. After all, the matron never really allowed him to go into the village. Reality caught up with him all to soon. Cleaning and cooking all on his own was not fun at all. Worse yet, the children at the various parks didn't play with him, on the insistence of their parents and the only adults that treated him nice, aside from a few shinobi, were the owner of a ramen stand and his daughter. The one bright spot was Koto-chan who came by once in a while to spend some time with him and even brought along fresh groceries and her very own homemade cooking.

All this led to his current predicament. Being a bored seven-year-old, with too much energy, he started pranking people. His targets were mostly people who treated him badly, i.e. shop owners that overcharged him or were generally meanies. Naruto had tried to get into the library a few times, since reading was one of the few past-times that didn't require friends. However, the librarian didn't like him either and had chased him out, hence his desire to prank him. It was only thanks to his ji-san, that he was even able to read and some anonymous benefactor, that left behind books in his apartment.

Back to Naruto, he was currently trying to rearrange a few scrolls, containing old Academy texts in a rack. Being only 3'11" tall, he used a small chair to reach the higher compartments of said rack. When he was almost finished with his task, and tried to put the last scroll on the rack, he leant forwards and his right foot slipped form the edge of the chair. Stumbling right into the rack, he was lucky that it didn't topple over. However, as he grabbed onto the next best thing, that being the bottom of a compartment, the thin wood panel broke and Naruto fell to the ground in a heap. Having his unlucky day, a heavy wooden box, that was being stored in the broken compartment, came flying and hit him right on the head.

Naruto rubbed the forming bump on his head, glaring at the – according to him – stupid box. His annoyance came to a halt, when he saw the kanji for "four" in big yellow scripture on top of the box. Naruto's face changed to a big smile, 'this box must belong the Yondaime!', he thought excitedly. Naruto had read all about Konoha's Hokage and his ji-san had told him a few stories about them, since he had known all of them. For Naruto the fourth Hokage was quite the hero, having saved the village multiple times.

Naruto picked up the heavy box, but scratched his thumb open on a splitter of the slightly damaged box. He suckled on it to nurse the pain and then picked up the box again to put it back on the rack. As soon as his bloody thumb touched the box, the yellow letter started to glow and with a quiet 'click' the cover of the box lifted itself a little. Naruto froze for a moment, but then his curiosity got the better of him. Glancing around the storage room, he reassured himself that he was still alone and lifted the cover off completely. The first thing he noticed was a three-pronged kunai with weird markings on the hilt. Naruto picked up the kunai and marvelled at the weapon once wielded by a Hokage. Seeing multiple scrolls, he picked up the first and unrolled it.

 _Birth certificate_

 _BIRTH in the village hidden in the leaves, Konohagakure no Sato, registered by Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi._

 _CHILD: Date of birth: 10. October 1289_

 _Name: Naruto Namikaze_

 _Sex: Male_

 _PARENTS:_

 _Father:_

 _Name and Surname: Minato Namikaze_

 _Profession or occupation: Yondaime Hokage_

 _Age: 21_

 _Birthplace: Konohagakure no Sato_

 _Mother_

 _Name and Surname: Kushina Uzumaki_

 _Profession or occupation: Elite Jōnin_

 _Age: 21_

 _Birthplace: Uzushiogakure no Sato_

 _WITNESS: Name and Surname: Kakashi Hatake_

 _Profession or occupation: ANBU captain_

Naruto starred wide-eyed at the document in his hands, ' **Uzumaki** Kushina?!' he asked himself. His eyes darted around the room, making certain that he was still alone. He threw the scroll back into the box, placed the lid on it, picked it up and rushed out of the Hokage Tower towards his apartment.

-xXx-

Back in his apartment, Naruto sat on his bed, the box on his lap but unable to open it again. Looking at it with a confused expression, he noticed the tiny red smear on the lid and remembered his injury. Unfortunately, his thumb had already healed, so he bit down on it until skin broke and smeared the bloody appendage over the box again. Grabbing the lid, he took it off without resistance. He grabbed the birth certificate again, and just starred at it. He couldn't believe what he was reading, why had nobody told him about his parents. His ji-san had to know this, his signature and the Hokage's stamp was on the document. Shoving his questions back for later he grabbed the next scroll and opened it.

 _Naruto,_

 _I don't know where to begin to be honest. When you read this, it means that Hiruzen has told you about your lineage. My original was just stabbed through the chest while sealing the kyūbi and created me – a shadow clone – to write this letter for you. However, since my original is probably dead by now and my chakra is very limited I'll act as original for the time being. My name is Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage. I don't know what Hiruzen told you about the night the kyūbi attacked, so I'll write a little about that, in order for you to understand my actions. Your mother was the second jinchūriki of the ky_ _ūbi and the most beautiful women I have ever known. Unfortunately, we were attacked by a masked man with the sharingan the night you were born, who wanted to set the kyūbi free. Long story short we were taken by surprise and the kyūbi was ripped from your mother. A jinchūriki can't survive the extraction of its prisoner and even the fabled Uzumaki longevity wouldn't have been able to save your mother._

 _I am uncertain whether Hiruzen has told you about your burden or not. Therefore, I'll give you some information first. You must understand that bijū, such as the Kyūbi no Y_ _ōko can't die. They're giant masses of chakra, given conscience. The first Hokage Hashirama Senju subdued the kyūbi during his fight with Madara Uchiha and with the help of his wife Mito Uzumaki, sealed it away. Mito was the jinchūriki of the kyūbi before your mother. The weaker bijū can be sealed in objects for a few years before they break out, the stronger however, need human jailors. Due to political reasons Hashirama capture the other eight bijū and gifted them to the various villages as a sign of goodwill and peace. It obviously didn't work that well…_

 _Bijū are traditionally sealed in babies or young children, although it is not necessary, as the example of Mito shows. When the kyūbi broke loose and rampaged through Konoha we had to reseal him. As the Hokage I couldn't ask someone else to sacrifice their baby if I myself wasn't able to do so. There are only so many people I would ever trust to hold the power of a bijū and I can say without doubt that you're one of them. The seal I used however, is special. Unlike other jinchūriki who have like an on/off-switch to their bijū's chakra, your seal allows a constant 'trickle' of the kyūbi's chakra into your body (it is one of the most advanced seals ever created, if I may say so myself)._

 _The man that attacked us wanted to destroy Konoha and I was only able to rebuff him, so I knew that one day the village would need the kyūbi's power to survive and that is another reason why we chose you. Your mother and I trusted you with this burden because we believe that one day you will be able to control the kyūbi and protect the village we loved. There's no one we would trust more than you, for you are our son, Naruto, and we love you more than anything in the world. Never forget, that you are the kyūbi's jailor and not the demon himself. I told Hiruzen that you should be viewed as a hero for what you have sacrificed._

 _I am rambling by now, I guess my chakra is running low so I'll try to finish this. Due to the special seal, your body should become more acclimated to the_ _kyūbi's chakra. Your mother had always trouble using it, since it hurt her body. It will also give you bigger chakra reserves. It is a shame that I won't be able to teach you anything sochi, however, one piece of advice: you need to do many chakra control exercises, to use your chakra efficiently._

 _It's embarrassing that my only words to my son are about history and technicalities, but I'm certain that your mother will have all the 'mushy' stuff covered. I will seal this letter and your mother's in a box together with some other things. The documents to our bank accounts and our home should be in there. Our home has similar protections to this box, so only you will be able to access it. The house is very secluded, since I needed a lot of space to work on new jutsu and train with my summons. When your heritage is revealed, you could also live in the Senju compound. Tsunade has left the village a few years ago, and isn't even aware of Kushina's pregnancy, since we weren't able to contact her._

 _I can feel my last chakra leaving this body. I want you to know that, whatever you do, your mother and I will be proud of you. Train hard, son, I know that you will become great one day. I hope that Hiruzen, Jiraiya and Kakashi took good care of you._

 _With all my love,_

 _Minato Namikaze  
Yondaime Hokage_

Naruto's hands trembled while tears streamed down his face. He didn't understand everything his father, or rather his father's clone, had written. Apparently, he had the kyūbi sealed inside of him, however that worked and it was the reason the villagers resented him. Naruto wasn't sure what to feel about this, so he rummaged around in the box, looking for the letter his mother had written.

 _Sochi,_

 _First, I love you so much. I loved you from the moment I found out that I was pregnant. I'm so sorry, that your father and I won't be there for you growing up. I'm sure your father rambled on about the amazing seal he used for the_ _kyūbi and how you're going to be a great shinobi. However, know that whether you become a shinobi or not, we will be proud of you._

 _There are a few things that I need to tell you. As you might now I was born in Uzushiogakure, the Village Hidden by Whirling Tides. Uzushio is rather special, in the sense that its population was made up almost completely by the Uzumaki clan. It is my hope, that you can bring our clan back to greatness. You see, a few years after I left Uzushio to live in Konoha, Uzushio was attacked and our clan almost completely wiped out. In my lifetime, I tried to find survivors but was without luck._

 _The Uzumaki were a proud clan and famous for their skill in Kenjutsu and Fūinjutsu. We were closely allied with Konoha, due to the marriage between Hashirama and my grandmother Mito Uzumaki. So, if you decide to become a shinobi, you might want to look into those two ninja-arts._

 _There are many scrolls on the history and jutsu of the Uzumaki in our home, so if you are interested, it would be the best place to start._

 _I'm sure that your father rambled about the night we both died (is it weird to write about my original's impending death?). However, you must be quite angry at us, due to our actions and the fact, that your inheritance and the knowledge about your parents was kept from you. Your father's clone informed Hiruzen about everything and asked him, to keep you safe and your lineage hidden until you are ready to defend yourself. Both me and your father made many enemies in our life. Iwa in particular would love nothing more than to remove the name Namikaze from this world. For all this, I want to apologize and hope, that you can forgive us._

 _I feel my en_ _d coming, so here's some last advice. Naruto, don't be picky, eat lots and grow strong. Make sure that you bathe every day and stay warm. Also, don't stay up late, you need lots of sleep. And make friends. You don't need a lot of friends, just a few. Ones you can really, really trust.  
I wasn't very good at it, but keep up with your studies and practice your ninjutsu hard. Remember that everyone has strengths and weaknesses, so don't get too depressed if you can't do something well. Respect your teachers and upperclassmen at the Academy.  
Oh, and this is important, it's about the Three Prohibitions for a shinobi. Be extra careful about lending and borrowing money. Put your mission wages into your savings account. No alcohol until you're twenty. Too much can ruin your health, so drink in moderation. Another Prohibition is women. I'm a woman, so I don't know too much about this but, all you need to remember is, that this world is made up of men and women, so it's only natural to take an interest in girls. But just don't get hooked on bad women. Find someone just like me. Speaking of the Three Prohibitions, be wary of Jiraiya.  
You know Naruto, from now on, you're going to face lots of pain and hardship. Be true to yourself. Have a dream and have the confidence to make that dream come true. There's so much, oh, so much more that I want to pass on to you. I wish I could stay with you longer. _

_I love you,_

 _Kushina Namikaze_

-xXx-

Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato sat in his office gazing into his crystal ball with a frown on his face. He could only hope, that he did the right thing by leading Naruto to his inheritance. This last year he had been forced to watched a young boy turn from an inquisitive, curious and exceedingly bright child into a parody of itself. All due to the behaviour of the very people he had served for close to five decades, not to mention the boy's own service (although unknown to him until now). Hiruzen could tell himself all day that his actions were for the good of Naruto, but at the end of the day he was the Hokage and he could not allow an asset like Naruto wither away.

If certain people got wind of what he did, he might get into trouble. Not that anyone could touch him, but it would be quite annoying having to explain himself. He decided to keep an eye on Naruto, at least for next few days, and make sure that he didn't shout S-class secrets from the Hokage monument.

-xXx-

 _12\. December 1296_

Naruto woke with a start. He had cried himself to sleep the previous night, clutching his parents' letters to his chest. Naruto wasn't sure what he should feel. On one hand his parents were the reason, that villagers didn't like him and he couldn't make friends. Due to said treatment however, Naruto learned to grow up early, and understood that what his father did was necessary. There were only two things he was certain off at the moment. One, he was going to find the masked man and make him pay. Two, he wanted to visit his parents' house, the home he should've grown up in.

After a delicious cup of instant ramen, he made his way to the Hokage monument. According to the scroll his parents left him, their house was located near a small lake behind the monument.

-xXx-

The first thing Naruto noticed after entering the house, was the dust everywhere. Making his way through the different rooms, he explored what should have been his childhood home. Tears sprang to his eyes on multiple occasions; the first time he saw a photograph of both his father and mother, the room they had prepared for him, or how there were still dishes in the kitchen sink, as if someone would come back at any moment to wash them.

The two-story house had a kitchen, dining room, living room and a small bath on the first floor. On the second floor, there were three bedrooms, another bath and the library, connected to an office. After having explored the house for almost an hour, Naruto spent the rest of the morning in the library. The first thing he did, was looking for the scrolls his mother had mentioned. He wanted to know more about his family, the only thing he ever craved for more than ramen.

When lunchtime rolled around, Naruto ignored the rambling of his stomach and decided that he would have an extra-large dinner instead. Having read about the Uzumaki's for three hours already, he decided, that he should check what else there was to find.

Five hours later Naruto was amazed by what he found. Apparently, his father put a lot of worth into amassing knowledge. There were scrolls on every ninja-art Naruto had ever heard about and then some. From history to science, even his father's old academy books and notes were stored away. The only thing missing were scrolls on actual jutsus. The whole collection was more about general chakra knowledge and jutsu invention.

Over the past five hours Naruto also tried to think about what his parents wrote and made some decisions. First, he wouldn't tell his ji-san, that he knew about his parents. He wondered, when the Sandaime would deem him worthy of that knowledge. Second, he would heed both his father's and mother's advice.

When he had looked into his father's old academy books he couldn't stop himself from reading a little, after all he would soon be learning this stuff anyway. Naruto had already read a book about chakra and together with his father's notes, it was much easier to understand. There were a few words that were still too big for him, luckily his jiji had gifted him with some boring book that explained all the words that he had ever seen. Naruto promised himself to look into it back at his apartment, he would do everything he could to become as strong as his father, even if it meant reading about not so interesting stuff, like geography.

Thinking about his father, he thought about his dream of becoming Hokage. While he still wanted that to some degree, he realised, that he would have to correct the opinion people at about him. The thing he wanted most at the moment, was to be respected and not glared at all the time. He remembered the times the ninja with funny masks helped him out and how no one messed with them. Maybe he could ask his jiji or Koto-chan who they were and become one of them. Besides, he had heard the Hokage complain about his paperwork often and it didn't sound funny at all.

Naruto also wanted to learn fūinjutsu. On the one hand, it was interesting. Like, a few symbols holding a gigantic mass of chakra at bay? How's that not awesome? On the other, it was what made the Uzumaki great and respected and his mother had told him, to bring the Uzumaki clan back to greatness.

His decisions made he picked up his father's old academy stuff and a beginner's book on fūinjutsu. Coming back to this house everyday would be suspicious. Just aside from the academy books he also found a book titled _'Ninja – A how-to, by T.S.'_. That sounded exactly like something he could use. Quite happy with his discovery, he found himself a bag, put his books in it and left the house.

-xXx-

 _19\. December 1296_

One week later we find our favourite blond storming into the Hokage's office, permission to do so non-withstanding.

"Jiji, I need your help!", the boy exclaimed loudly.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sandaime Hokage, hero of many battles and wars, Kami no Shinobi and many other titles looked up from a small orange book and cursed. Just when he was taking a short break from the arduous paperwork, he had to be interrupted. When he noticed who it was interrupting him however, he started to smile.

"Hello Naruto-kun. Tell me, what can I help you with?"

Naruto started to fidget under to Hokage's gaze, he hadn't planned what to say exactly to his ji-san, in order not to arouse suspicion.

"Well, you see jiji. I want to become a shinobi and I heard that shinobis need to eat healthy food and such, but I have a problem. The merchants only sell me bad things and it's like super expensive! Koto-chan usually brings by stuff, but according to this book I'm reading, I need to eat much more to build muscles. And Koto-chan said if I wanted to join ANBU I have to be really big and strong!"

The Sandaime's eyes darkened at those words and cursed mentally, 'those fucking civilians, if they knew who exactly they're mistreating so badly. I have to thank Mikoto again for looking after the boy. One day I will proudly proclaim Naruto's lineage and enjoy, how those worms fall over them-selves in order to apologise for their treatment'.

"Uhm jiji? Are you mad at me?", Naruto asked shaking a little. Unknown to Hiruzen, he leaked a bit of his killing intent, while indulging in his slightly morbid fantasies. Quickly gathering himself, he answered,

"No, Naruto-kun, not at all. I'm very happy to hear about your decision and your ambition to join ANBU. While I agree that ramen is truly delicious, it doesn't help with your growth. How about you make a list of all the groceries you need for one week and leave it with me. I will make certain that it is delivered to your home and deduct the prize from your stipend. If you want to make changes, just bring me a new list, alright?"

Naruto's eyes lit up and he flung himself at the Hokage.

"Thank you jiji, that's awesome! Err, one more thing. See, I wanted to prepare for the academy, since I start in half a year. But I can't buy any shuriken or kunai. And when Koto-chan comes by she always makes scrolls go 'poof' and stuff pops out. I never really cared 'cuz you know how her food is awesome and distracts me, but yesterday I asked her and she told me it's called fūinjutsu and I really want to learn that, 'cuz you know I could take awesome Koto-chan-food on missions, so I need supplies for it, can you help me?"

"Alright, I will help you Naruto," the Sandaime declared with a smile on his face. "It's soon lunchtime. How about we got to Ichiraku's for some ramen and then we get you your supplies. However, I won't buy you fresh shuriken and kunai, they're too dangerous Naruto-kun. I'm sure some of my ANBU have leftovers that they don't need anymore, you can practice with them. Fūinjutsu is indeed a very interesting branch of the ninja-arts, if you need help with it, you can ask me. Now, before we go, please wait outside my office, I need to talk to some quickly, alright?"

"Hai jiji!" Naruto exclaimed loudly, jumping from Hiruzen's lap and dashing towards the door. Once the door was closed behind him, the Sandaime turned towards the dog-masked ANBU hidden in one of the corners.

"Inu, you will be responsible for Naruto's groceries and the next time you come across Mikoto please give her my thanks."

"Hai Hokage-sama," Inu replied.

"Very well. If you wish you may help Naruto-kun from time to time. His interest in ANBU is cover enough. It'll be your job to buy his groceries and I'm certain you'll find some old kunai and shuriken in ANBU Headquarters. When you're on missions, I think Itachi-kun has a sweet spot for Naruto, ask him to buy the groceries in your absence."

"Hai Hokage-sama."

* * *

 _Ninja – A how-to, Introduction_

I write these lines in my 35th year on this earth. It has been twelve years since the founding of Konoha no Sato and with it, the union of multiple Shinobi clans. Much has changed in those twelve years, with many nations following our example in creating unified hidden villages. And even though it shouldn't have, for many the meaning of what a shinobi is supposed to be changed as well.

In order to train shinobi-hopefuls from different clans, with different attitudes and different styles the Konoha Ninja Academy was built. It is my belief that irrespectively of anyone's origins, the same foundation must be found in a competent ninja that go beyond technical abilities. The mind is as much a weapon as the body and like any weapon can be turned against yourself, genjutsu only being the most obvious example.

In order for our great village to prosper, our shinobi and kunoichi shall be prepared for the cost and shall learn what it means to be a soldier of Konoha. For barely a decade after our founding and the peace that it brought with it, our ninja are starting to become lax. The merging of knowledge led to great advancements in the creation of jutsu, particularly of elemental nature. It also brought with it arrogance and the very dangerous principle of 'the flashier, the better'.

In this book I shall write my thoughts on the true meaning of being a shinobi and how you become one.

Chapter 1 – Being a ninja

Chapter 2 – Mind and body

Chapter 3 – Chakra introductions

Chapter 4 – Taijutsu

Chapter 5 – Bukijutsu

Chapter 6 – Ninjutsu

Chapter 7 – Genjutsu

Chapter 8 – Chakra theory

Chapter 9 – Elemental jutsu

Chapter 10 – Jutsu Theory

* * *

A.N.

[Due to mild rewrite I deleted some parts of A.N.'s, timeline will always be featured in last chaper posted and not in every chapter, together with jutsu-list.]

Updates for this story will probably irregular [turns out irregular is mildly correct]

If I spot a plot-hole or edit something in an already posted chapters, I will make a note at the start of the next posted chapter.

I'm undecided whether I'll include lemons or not. The story will be rated M for language and gore anyway and I'll put up warnings in case of sexual contents.

Any Japanese writing that doesn't come from canon, is from google translate. Please don't crucify me for sloppy translation.

I won't touch the Asura/Indra reincarnation-thingy. My altered version of the past, will be explained within the story. Kaguya won't make an appearance either. While the 'Tsuki no Me' is still Madara's/Obito's goal, it won't come that far, instead there will be other issues (the story will follow canon-events, right until the invasion by pein).

I developed my own timeline, which is posted later in this chapter. I will add events, as the story goes on. I will also add future mentioned/planned events.

Onto some characters: I personally hate to read a story, only to find out, that certain relationships are fucked up or that a character I don't like, has a huge part in it, while cool characters are missing. Thus, I'll give a quick overview, of the main-canon characters and what you can expect of them. Two other important things: One, there won't be direct bashing in this fic, but rather people stating facts about the stupidity of certain others. Two, there will be more character death than in canon.

Naruto: My Naruto won't be stupid for one. While I enjoyed the idiocy in the manga/anime, I can't write like that, without constantly cringing. I plan to make him somewhat similar to what we've seen of Hashirama. Loud, goofy and a little oblivious with his friends, but serious when training or on missions. Naruto won't be a prodigy/genius, but instead working on his skills with the help of various people. I won't have him abusing kage bunshin too early.

Sasuke: I personally can't stand him and he won't survive this story. While I somewhat understand his behaviour due to his background, I won't tolerate that shit. He'll die sooner or later.

Sakura: I'm rather undecided about her. I'll probably use her death to further the plot or something. There're better characters to be apprenticed under Tsunade and she's rather annoying.

Izumi: Sasuke's OC twin sister. She will obviously have a big part in this story, otherwise I wouldn't have created her. I won't say much about her character yet, but she will be a little like Naruto. Instead of loud/boisterous, she will be the more happy and quiet type, although not shy.

Tsunade: I plan to make Kushina a cousin to Tsunade. Kushina's mother will be the second born child of Hashirama and Mito. After becoming Hokage, Tsunade will be Naruto's mother figure.

Jiraiya: I might have lied about the bashing. There will be a short section, when Jiraiya gets his fill, but afterwards there won't be hostility between him and Naruto.

If anyone has questions about my plans with other character, review or pm me and I'll add it here.

I'm almost done with this, here's the last part: my timeline (it may contain a few small spoilers, but I'm too lazy to remove them now only to add them two chapters later). The ages of characters are always calculated for the 10. October. (A.S. stands for after Sage). [I also added my rotation for the chūnin exams]

1200 A.S. Hasirama/Madara born

1205 A.S. Tobirama born

1228 A.S. Konoha founding Hashirama 28 y/o

1230 A.S. Itawa Senju born (Hashirama first-born son, name from dead brother)

1240 A.S. Natsumi Senju born (Kushina's mother)

1243 A.S. Hiruzen graduation Hiruzen 10 y/o

1250 A.S. Tsunade, Jiraiya born

1255 A.S. End 1st shinobi world war Hiruzen 22 y/o

1265 A.S. Generation Minato born

1269 A.S End 2nd shinobi world war Minato 4 y/o  
Jiraiya 19 y/o  
Tsunade 19 y/o  
Hiruzen 36 y/o

1270 A.S. Kushina comes to Konoha Kushina 5 y/o

1271 A.S. Destruction of Uzu  
Start 2nd shinobi world war

1272 A.S. Kushina becomes jinchūriki Kushina 7 y/o  
Mito dies

1273 A.S End 2nd shinobi world war Minato 8 y/o  
Jiraiya 23 y/o  
Tsunade 23 y/o  
Hiruzen 40 y/o

1275 A.S. Minato graduation Minato 10 y/o  
Generation Kakashi born

1280 A.S. Kakashi graduation Kakashi 5 y/o (graduation after 1year)  
Minato 15 y/o

1282 A.S. Team Minato Kakasi 7 y/o (2 years with different team)  
Obito/Rin 9 y/o (graduation after 3 years)  
Minato 17 y/o

1283 A.S. Start 3rd shinobi world war Kakashi 8 y/o  
Obito/Rin 10 y/o  
Minato 18 y/o

1284 A.S Yagura becomes Mizukage Zabuza 10 y/o

1286 A.S. End 3rd shinobi world war Kakashi 11 y/o  
Obito 13 y/o  
Minato 21 y/o

1289 A.S. Kyubii attack Itachi 5 y/o  
Kakashi 14 y/o  
Minato 24 y/o

1296 A.S. Story start Naruto 7 y/o  
Itachi 12 y/o  
Kakashi 21 y/o

1298 A.S. Graduation / Uchiha massacre Naruto 9 y/o  
Hana 14 y/o  
Itachi 14 y/o  
Kakashi 23 y/o

1302 A.S. Rookie 9 graduation Naruto 13 y/o  
Hana 18 y/o  
Itachi 18 y/o  
Zabuza 26 y/o  
Kakashi 27 y/o  
Asuma 27 y/o  
Tsunade 51 y/o  
Jiraiya 51 y/o  
Hiruzen 68 y/o

Chunin-exam rotation; After full roation (Suna) a small village holds them. It's meant as winter/summer.

Kumo Iwa Kiri Konoha Suna random small village

99 Iwa/Kiri  
00 Konoha/Suna  
01 Tani/Kumo  
02 Iwa/Kiri  
03 Konoha/Suna  
04 Kusa/Kumo


	2. To become a genin

Thanks for the great feedback guys! I'm currently on a row, so here's chapter 2.

A.N. at the end of the chapter, with replies to a few reviews.

LOOKING FOR BETA

I don't own Naruto!

* * *

 _What happened last time_

 _"Inu, you will be responsible for Naruto's groceries and the next time you come across Mikoto please give her my thanks."_

 _"Hai Hokage-sama," Inu replied._

 _"Very well. If you wish you may help Naruto-kun from time to time. His interest in ANBU is cover enough. It'll be your job to buy his groceries and I'm certain you'll find some old kunai and shuriken in ANBU Headquarters. When you're on missions, I think Itachi-kun has a sweet spot for Naruto, ask him to buy the groceries in your absence."_

 _"Hai Hokage-sama."_

* * *

Chapter 2

 _14\. April 1297_

The next four months were probably the best in Naruto's short life. New year came and went and Naruto kept studying and reading the scrolls he got from his parents' library. His used his time for useful stuff and didn't waste whole days away being bored. Plus, he made many different foods. While ramen was still on top of the ranking, sometimes it was a little much and he came to enjoy having a decent breakfast.

Whenever the weather allowed it, Naruto sat on a tree in one of the rather secluded training grounds working on something. He was breezing through the academy curriculum. Admittedly, he wasn't able to remember everything he read and learned, but he was simply not that interested in geography. History was somewhat interesting, at least reading about the previous Hokage and the shinobi world wars and by now he knew, that math was a big thing with fūinjutsu, so he tried his best.

To his consternation, Naruto realised quite early that fūinjutsu was very time consuming. Before he could even start working on seals, he had to better his own handwriting. The one positive thing he got out of it was, that he definitely became more patient. While he could not work on seals himself, he was still able to read the theory, which was very interesting, although there were some bigger words, he didn't quite grasp. Fortunately for him, he had his ji-san for help and on some occasions even the nice dog-masked ANBU whom he had seen around a few times before and quickly dubbed Inu-nii.

It was also quite interesting to see, how everyday things for shinobi were actually quite complex in fūinjutsu terms. For example, storage scrolls, while widely utilised were quite complex. Creating a 'pocket-dimension' (one of the words his ji-san had helped him with), was not as simple as shinobi made it out to be and actually quite advanced for fūinjutsu work.

The book _'Ninja – A how-to'_ was one of his most prized possessions. It explained almost everything that was relevant to the training of a shinobi, from workout to nutrition, the better-known ninja-arts and generally what it _meant_ to be a Ninja.

While reading about weight training, Naruto also made the discovery, that he should stay away from it, at least until he his teenager years. Apparently, it was quite dangerous and could harm growth and bone structure if you went overboard with weights. Therefore, he only worked with his own body-weight, meaning push-ups, sit-ups and the like. If he was honest with himself, he didn't really see the results of his training, but was determined to keep at it.

The few things he had trouble with, were his bukijutsu and chakra control. Throwing shuriken and kunai without proper instruction was quite troublesome he soon realised. Instead of asking the Sandaime for help, he decided to just wait until he started at the academy and use his time to learn the other stuff he would need.

He didn't give up on his chakra control however. Unlocking his chakra went without trouble but afterwards, he seemed to be stuck. Being completely unable to keep a leaf anywhere on his body since it just blew away every time he tried it, he looked into other exercises. One month later Naruto was running up and down the trees in his chosen training ground. He realised that his problem with chakra control was the exact opposite to other ninjas. Other ninjas worked from using the smallest amount up to higher amounts, since with exercises their chakra reserves also expanded. Naruto already had quite big reserves, so he had to start on a more chakra consuming exercise and work his way down.

Since learning tree-walking, or more exactly 'sticking to a surface', Naruto tried the leaf exercise with different things. He started out with pebbles, since those should withstand more force than a leaf and not just blow away. To Naruto's delight, his self-invented exercise worked quite well. He was certain that within the next two months, he would be able to do the normal leaf exercise.

It was in the middle of April, when things started to get even better for Naruto. He was sitting on his usual branch on his usual tree in his usual training ground, when he heard something land in front of him. Startled by the sudden sound, Naruto looked up from his scroll and the person in front of him, who seemed eerily familiar. He looked rather young, in his early teenage years maybe, with black hair in a ponytail and standard ANBU-gear.

"Hello Naruto-kun, what are you doing here?"

Recognizing the monotone voice for one of the ANBUs that protected him once, Naruto's face lit up.

"Weasel-chan! Shouldn't you wear your mask?"

"I'm currently off duty and as such, please call me Itachi," the now identified youth said, with a slight ticking mark forehead, being offended by the 'chan' suffix.

"Okay! Well, I'm learning to become a great ninja. Just wait, I'll have a cool mask soon enough!"

"So, you want to become an ANBU Naruto-kun? Quite the ambition, if you need any help, feel free to ask me," Itachi said, in the same monotone voice.

"Really? That would be so awesome. Can you show me how to throw kunai and shuriken, and can you show me some taijutsu? Oh, and you must know some super cool ninjutsu too, pleeease?" Naruto said, masterfully executing a _puppy-eyes no jutsu_ without the use of hand seals. Itachi's eyes widened slightly and he staggered back on the tree branch.

"Okay, I'll help you, but only if you promise never to do that again!" Itachi said, fear creeping into his voice. Naruto jumped up from his previous position, being on his knees, his hands together as if in prayer. He lost his footing however, and dropped from the branch faceplanting into the forest floor. Sighing to himself Itachi thought, 'he can use my help, Sasuke and Izumi have tou-san and kaa-san to help them and anyway, I owe it to Kushina-obaa-san for babysitting me.' He jumped down from the tree, landing right in front of an unresponsive Naruto.

"Alright, listen Naruto-kun. I will help you, however, in exchange you have to follow my orders without complaint." Naruto groaned audibly before lifting his head from the forest floor.

"Okay Itachi-nii, let's start," was the rather unenthusiastic response.

"Alright, first off, I won't teach you any ninjutsu or genjutsu until you start at the academy and even then, only the standard academy jutsu. I will help you with recognising and breaking enemy genjutsu though," Itachi said ticking of his finger.

"But nii-san!" Ignoring Naruto's outburst, he continued,

"Second, I will teach you the academy taijutsu, since it's useful knowledge for every shinobi of the leaf. Although many clan members use their own taijutsu, there are many shinobi relying on the leaf's general style. Knowing the style, means knowing how your future teammates will fight, means you will be anticipate their attacks and help accordingly.

"Third, I don't have much time due to my ANBU responsibilities. If I'm available, I'll meet you here. If you're not here, I won't go looking for you. Do we have an agreement?"

"Hai, hai. So, with what do we start?"

"Joint-training. Evasion and bukijutsu." Itachi answered and threw a blunt kunai and Naruto who dodged the offensive item in the nick of time with an indignant outcry, right before he blanched at the multitude of shuriken and kunai flying at him.

-xXx-

 _11\. March 1297_

"I understand, that you enjoy your new assignment Itachi-kun?" Hiruzen asked one of his top ANBU-operators. Despite only being twelve years old, Itachi was on the verge of taking over captain-ship from Inu, also known as Kakashi Hatake.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Was the dutiful response.

"As I understand you have taken to train Naruto-kun in your free time this past month, what do you think of him."

"Well… With all due respect Hokage-sama, we might want to keep this between us." The Sandaime nodded and after a handsign three of the four ANBU watching over the Hokage this afternoon vanished, while the fourth knelt in front of the Hokage.

"With your permission Hokage-sama.", the dog-mask wearing individual said.

"Of course, Kakashi-kun, you may stay," Hiruzen answered the unasked question and activated the privacy seals in his office, "now Itachi-kun, your assessment?"

"He's a weird blend of both his parents to be honest," the Sandaime straightened his back at those words, suddenly looking more like the fabled shinobi he is, than the grandfatherly figure many saw in him.

"I was not aware, that you knew of his lineage."

"My mother was very close with Kushina-obaa-san and I was aware of her pregnancy. She said that not only my mother would give me a sibling." Itachi said with a sad smile, "My mother makes it a point to visit him from time to time even though she doesn't tell anyone else. Plus, he looks like a mini-Yondaime, loves ramen and pranks and then there is his prisoner. The Yondaime would never burden another family, if he didn't chose his own first.

"As I said he is a weird blend of his parents. While he can be irritably goofy when just walking around, he is also very focused on his studies. While he doesn't learn theory extremely easy, aside from fūinjutsu that is, he picks up the practical parts very well. His shuriken and kunai throwing improved greatly, with very little instruction."

"That is very interesting. I expect great things from him."

"And he will achieve them. If he keeps studying like he does right now, I have no doubt, that he won't need more than two years at the academy. Maybe even less."

"I see. In that case, we're fortunate, that Kakashi-kun will be available for a jōnin-sensei position by the time Naruto-kun graduates. He will need an unbiased instructor to pass the genin exam.

-xXx-

 _5\. May 1298_

Life for Naruto Uzumaki was quite good, if he might say so himself. Although he attended the academy only irregularly he passed his exams quite easily. The only thing that confused him, was that his exams, more often than not, seemed quite difficult for a first-year student and asked for knowledge that was only taught in the later part of his father's books and notes. His training with Itachi let him skip most taijutsu and bukijutsu classes. While not perfect, he was certain that it would be good enough to pass the graduation exam.

Naruto knew, that he would be able to take the exam early, which drove him even more to further his studies, since he got the distinct feeling that his senseis didn't like him much. Some of them even tried to sabotage him, by worsening his taijutsu stance, which gave him only more reason to skip the class altogether. It was rather difficult to assess his own abilities, but he knew that he was easily the best in his own class. While not necessarily stronger than his classmates, he was a lot faster and his shuriken and kunai throwing was flawless on the shorter distance used for first years.

Thanks to his improved nutrition, Naruto had shot up in height, to be a little above average for his age, he stood at about 4'5". Unfortunately, that meant buying new clothes, which meant dealing with civilians. The only thing he was able to buy was a bright orange jump-suit. While orange was his favourite colour a little more than a year ago, that had changed when he first saw a picture of his mother. He thought that her red hair was super cool, and thus he had a new favourite colour. All that aside, he figured that orange wasn't exactly something a shinobi should run around in, they were supposed to be stealthy after all (or so his favourite book said). All the more reason to become a shinobi as fast as possible, so he could shop in the shinobi-only stores, that sold real shinobi gear, like the so called 'ANBU-style' pants.

The only academy sensei he got along with was Iruka. Although the scar-faced chūnin was quite vexed with him when he missed classes he was very fair and the only person to catch him regularly after a prank – ANBU included. Due to his studies in fūinjutsu his pranks changed quite a bit and just now Naruto was on his way to the Hokage tower for two reasons. First, he needed his ji-san's help for the graduation exam and second, he wanted to experience his newest invention first hand.

This newest invention being a seal made to prank the Hokage. It had taken him hours to create the seals perfectly, since his handwriting still needed a lot of work. Out of the ten level, by which fūinjutsu users were rated, Naruto was only about half through level two. However, the ranking was somewhat useless after level seven. The reason for that is quite simple. Until level six there is a very strict guideline, as to what the user should be able to do and which books are the best to study. After level six, fūinjutsu branches off into subdivisions and there are only very few available scrolls or books for those. Since there are only very few ninjas actually practicing fūinjutsu, there's no one with real authority to rate the fūinjutsu user correctly. The only reason the system was still in place, is for non-combat use, such as weapon-smiths, who use fūinjutsu to improve swords and such.

Dashing past the secretary, Naruto opened the slide-door to the hokage's office, but didn't enter immediately. He stood at the threshold looking into the office. The whole office was completely turned upside down, furniture actually having turned 180 degrees and resting on the ceiling the correct way. That was even better than planned! His seals should only reverse the gravity, he had no idea why the furniture turned themselves!

"Hello jiji, your office looks all wrong," Naruto said while smiling cheekily. One could see the reason as to why Naruto didn't enter the office, sitting behind the hokage's desk. A scowling Hiruzen Sarutobi sat there, upside down working on paperwork. A mad glint suddenly appeared in his eyes, when he saw Naruto in front of his office.

"Narutooooooooo! I knew it was you! If you don't reverse this right now, I'll forbid Teuchi from serving you ramen ever again, I swear to Kami, I'll do it!"

Naruto blanched at the outburst, he might've gone a little overboard with this one. Waving his hand in front of him he said, "I'll do it jiji! Just leave me my ramen, I swear I won't prank you again!" With his last word spoken, Naruto dashed into the adjacent room and ripped a paper seal from the wall that was shared with the hokage's office. Repeating his action with the outside wall and the room across from the first, he arrived in front of the slide-door just in time to see the reversal of his prank. Every item in the office – Hokage included – made half a flip and landed on the floor.

Hiruzen collected himself and took a few deep breaths. If he was quite honest, he was amazed by the pranks the young boy could make. His ANBU spent a good half hour trying to figure out what was wrong, without success. Although, the pranks were much more troublesome, they were also more enjoyable, if they weren't played on him, that is. He still wasn't certain whether he should regret the day he bought Naruto his fūinjutsu equipment or not.

"Naruto-kun, were you only here to see the results of your latest prank or is there another reason. While we're at it, how did you do that?!", the Hokage asked, raising his voice a little at the end.

Naruto grinned cheekily while answering, "Well, it was part of the reason I wanted to come by. I didn't expect the furniture to turn to be quite honest. As to how I did it, I simply reversed the effects of a gravitation seal. As you know, increasing gravity is quite simple and doesn't take much chakra, the opposite however… let's just say it's fortunate that I got so much chakra, the seal's effects would've reversed on its own quite soon I guess.

"As to the other reason, I actually need your help jiji."

"You play a prank on me and then dare to ask for my help? Give me a reason to actually help you."

"Well, I'm certain I can do even more annoying thing with seals," Naruto answered grinning, "plus, I actually didn't expect to need your help. Itachi-nii has almost no time for me anymore. Ever since he was made ANBU captain he had less and less time."

The Sandaime nodded to himself. Although the reason for Itachi's absence was more related to the issues with his clan, rather than his position, Naruto was right. "Alright Naruto-kun, what do you need help with."

"Well you see, I actually want to take the graduation test this year. I mean I have three tries and maybe I'll be able to do it."

"I actually suspected that you might try, but I don't see a problem with that."

"Well, I know I'll pass taijutsu and bukijutsu and the written test should be possible, but I can't get this stupid clone jutsu to work! Henge and kawarimi are super easy, but this stupid clone is always dead!", Naruto said, his voice laced with annoyance.

"Have you tried using more chakra Naruto-kun?"

"Of course, but they get even worse then," Naruto answered grimacing.

'He has too much chakra and not good enough control to make a simple illusion then,' Hiruzen mused, 'I believed Kushina had the same problem, what to do though?'

"Jiji?"

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun, I was just thinking about the problem and I might have a solution. You see, it's quite possible, that you have too much chakra to make a simple clone. The Uzumaki were quite famous for their large chakra reserves," Hiruzen said.

"Whaddaya mean, the Uzumaki? You telling me I have a clan?" Naruto asked, trying to keep the ruse of his ignorance concerning his heritage up.

"Sadly, no. The Uzumakis were wiped out at the start of the second shinobi world war. It seems that our history classes aren't as good as they should be. You see the Uzumakis lived in Uzushiogakure no Sato and were quite famous for several things. We were closely allied, but unfortunately unable to help them in time, when they were attacked by the combined force of several villages. To this day, we honour them, by wearing their symbol on our chūnin- and j _ōnin-vests_." Hiruzen explained.

That last titbit of information, was actually new for Naruto. He knew that the villages were allied and he had seen the Uzumaki swirl but never made the connection to the vests.

"Well, then my mum or dad must have survived, maybe other survived too! I will find them and bring them back to Konoha." Naruto said with conviction in his voice.

"That is a wonderful goal Naruto. However, back to your problem. I'm going to teach you a different clone technique. Under normal circumstances, I would never teach this to an 8-year-old, but your chakra reserves should allow you to perform the jutsu. I could teach you the elemental version of the clone jutsu, but I think this one will prove itself quite useful in the future."

-xXx-

 _14\. July 1298_

The last two and a half month before his first graduation exam went by rather swift for Naruto. He was revising the written part of the exam a lot, slacking off in his fūinjutsu studies in exchange. The young blond usually had a quick workout in the morning, then either went to the academy or studied by himself. In the afternoon, he would work on his tai- and bukijutsu and finish off with his chakra control training. Naruto strictly followed the advice from his books concerning the physical aspects of his training. His body was still too young for heavy workouts and combined with tai- and bukijutsu training, he did easily enough to build some muscle.

Today however, was special. He skipped his morning-routine entirely and went straight to the academy, it was after all the day he had his graduation exam. Naruto thought himself more than a little lucky to have met Itachi over a year ago. The teenager had explained to him how the graduation exam would be marked.

There would be five tests, namely: Tai-, Nin- and Bukijutsu, physical conditioning and academic knowledge. To pass you had to score at least 60 percent on three exams and at least 50 percent over all. Naruto knew he would pass nin- and bukijutsu easily. Due to his young age the physical conditioning and taijutsu exams would be rather difficult and he was not exactly the most diligent student. Luckily Itachi explained that the written exam focused on command structure, the shinobi code of conduct and related topics. While a lot of academic knowledge was important, it could always me supplemented by teammates, behaviour in front of clients and on missions however was paramount, as such the focus lay heavily on those aspects.

Thinking about his impending graduation – after all there was no doubt he would pass – he was a little saddened. While he didn't exactly enjoy the few lectures he witnessed, he actually got along with a few of his year-mates. The Akimichi-, Nara- and Inuzuka-Clainheirs were quite fun to hang out with. They weren't exactly best friends, but maybe he could invite them to a restaurant after he received his first few mission payments. Most of the other kids in his class he didn't even know by name. He was aware of the other heirs of major clans, namely the Aburame, Hyūga, and Yamanaka clan and then of course the younger siblings of Itachi.

When he first started at the academy, Naruto had tried to befriend them, but Sasuke acted like an arrogant prick and glared at anyone who even tried to talk to his sister. Suffice to say it was his first and last interaction with the two Uchihas. Itachi had actually _laughed_ at his brother's behaviour, when Naruto told him about it. Itachi never laughed.

Thinking about the Uchihas also left him pondering about Itachi's behaviour lately. While Itachi didn't have as much time as he used to since the autumn of last year, due to his promotion, it got even worse in the last few months. And when he actually met with Naruto he seemed distracted and extremely stressed. Naruto mused, whether his goal of joining ANBU might be a bad idea after all.

Arriving at the academy he went to his usual classroom, he received some weird looks from his classmates, he was after all not seen too often in the classroom. Ch _ō_ ji quickly roped him into some small talk, since Shikamaru was taking a nap, as usual. When the bell rang, the students started to quieten down and Iruka stood in front of the class.

"As you know, this is the day of graduation. While not recommended, any and all students are allowed to sit the exam. Be aware, that during the allocated five years to pass the exam, you are only allowed three tries. If you're not interested in taking the exam, today various chūnin and jōnin will show off some of their skills to you. For those who want to try for graduation, the written exam will be held in classroom B003. Everyone else follow me outside."

-xXx-

"Ano, Ashiro-sensei?"

"What?!", came rather aggravated reply from his chūnin-examiner.

Naruto was currently tested for the three academy ninjutsu. Having narrowly passed his three weakest exams, he breezed through the kunai and shuriken throwing. He had already performed both the henge and kawarimi flawlessly, his only hurdle to becoming a shinobi, was the clone jutsu.

"Hokage-sama told me that I had too much chakra for a simple _bunshin no jutsu_ and taught me a different version. He told me, that I should inform you about the change, and if there were any problems, you should bring it up with him." Naruto said, trying to sound as innocent as possible. He had already notice the animosity the chūnin held for him and was grateful, that his exam was almost over.

-xXx-

"Jiji! I passed! Look! I told you could do it, dattebayo!"

With a strained smile Hiruzen Sarutobi turned away from the window overlooking Konoha, towards the blond boy, who held a Konoha hitai-ate with a blue strip of cloth towards him.

"Very good Naruto, I'm proud of you. Unfortunately, I have a lot of work to do, otherwise I would have invited you to some ramen. How about you indulge yourself and tell Teuchi to put it on my tab, I'm sure Ayame wants to see you too and hear all about your exam."

Naruto came to a halt and peered at the hokage. He was sure, that his ji-san would've gone out to celebrate with him. His face lost a little of his happiness, when he said, "Sure jiji, I'll do that, thanks!"

"Oh, and Naruto, one more thing. The _Ninpou: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_ (Ninja-Art: Shadow Clone Technique) has a secondary function apart from producing a solid clone. You might have noticed, that you receive your clone's memories, whenever you dispel them. This makes them very good for spying and general intelligence gathering. With your growing chakra reserves you will soon be able to produce rather large numbers of clones.

"Jōnins who can create multiple clones, often use them to train muscle memory or chakra control in their downtime, since both are more mental aspects than physical aspects of training. However, I caution you to not use this ability for a while. Your mind is still very young, and receiving multiple different memories can put a heavy strain on your brain.

"Fortunately, that only happens, when you actually concentrate on the memories you receive and try to process them. Therefore, using multiple clones for mundane tasks shouldn't be a problem, as long as you simply ignore the information you receive, once they are destroyed. Promise me, that you will keep training the usual way, until I tell you that it is safe. You're very young and already genin, there's no need for you to accelerate your training even more."

"Huh, that's awesome jiji. I promise, but when do you think I can do that? Chakra control is super annoying to learn and having clones do it would safe so much time!"

"Not before you are thirteen Naruto, you need to grow both physically and mentally first. Considering that you can use the kage bunshin for recon missions, I give you permission to use one clone to assist with your training. Be aware though, that while you receive the memory of the clone, you don't receive a full hundred percent of his progress. If you have your clone doing ten hours of chakra control, it equals to the same progress as you yourself doing it for three hours. The jutsu was created for intelligence gathering, and it is pure coincidence that it also works for muscle memory, just not as good."

"Hai jiji, I still have a month until team assignments, I got to train lots!", Naruto exclaimed, while turning around, making his way out of the hokage's office.

"And Naruto! Be home early today please, and don't forget to register for your shinobi licence in the coming week."

"Hai, hai jiji, will do!"

-xXx-

Later that night

Naruto was awakened rather rudely, in the darkest hour of the night.

"Naruto-kun, wake up!"

"Huh?" Naruto moaned sleepily before noticing the other person in his bedroom. "Itachi-nii what are you doing here?"

"I don't have much time Naruto-kun, I'm leaving on a long-term mission and wanted to say goodbye first."

"Long-term what? How long will you be gone?"

"I don't know Naruto. Since I won't be able to train you for a while, I have a gift for you," Itachi said, handing Naruto two scrolls. "Open them tomorrow, consider the second a graduation gift."

"Arigatō nii-san, I wish I had a gift for you too,"

"There is one thing I would ask of you Naruto. You're a shinobi of Konoha now, please watch over my siblings while I'm gone."

"I promise!" Naruto said with determination.

"Arigatō Naruto-kun. I'm afraid I'll have to leave now. Until next time," and Itachi vanished into the night.

* * *

 _Ninja – A how-to, Chapter 1 Being a ninja_

What does it truly mean to be a shinobi or kunoichi? Different takes on history tell us different stories. It is generally agreed that the Sage of Six Paths made the first steps towards using chakra as it is used today. Over the centuries much change and even more was forgotten.

Too many academy students see the career of a ninja in the wrong light. It isn't some great adventure, neither is it some glorious path to riches. Our forefathers taught us that being a shinobi means to endure. To carry the hardships and burdens of our people, to defend them and to carry on doing so against the worst adversaries whether mental or physical.

I believe there is more to it than simply endure however. I believe it is only in battle that one gets to know himself and those around him. For it is in battle when you have to be honest with yourself to stand against your enemies. To be aware of your strength and your weakness. Being a ninja is path to self-awareness and there is no friendship that compares to those you forge in battle.

While the meaning of being a ninja has not changed much over the years, how to be a ninja has. I have addressed this problem in the introduction already, our shinobi and kunoichi are becoming lax. Being a shinobi is more than breathing fire or shoot lighting from your fingers. It may appear hypocritical to hear such words from the foremost user of Suiton jutsu, however there is a place and a time.

Ninja once were silent killers. The shadows that strike without being seen. We used to laugh at samurai and their flashy, honourable ways only to become like them. Being a ninja is not honourable, it is not fun and there is nothing glorious about it. True ninja are those that are not seen, not heard and most importantly not noticed at all.

When trying to achieve a mission goal, always remember, it is best when no one notices what your goal was. There is always more than one way to complete your mission, chose the most inconspicuous, the one that leaves the least traces, always.

* * *

A.N.

Regarding the pairing: It won't be Naru/Hina. Thinking about it, I'm not certain what I'm gonna do about Hinata, she's missing her idol after all :S Meh, gonna look into it later.

I just finished the first draft of chapter 4 and am happy to tell you, that's when the action starts :) I won't be posting the chapters yet however, since it's highly possible, that I got to go back and change things up. I always get new ideas and have to go back to intodruce them. I don't like for stuff to suddenly pop up out of nowhere :)

Two reviews that require an answer:

ethanfigueroa2929:  
1\. World peace: The idea that there are no ninjas needed, because there is no war is idiotic. Naruto's story starts with all villages at peace. Only because the big five work together, doesnt mean that there aren't nuke-nin or bandits. While there will be somewhat of a 'world-peace', the concept will be closer to Akatsuki's idea, than canon Naruto's.  
2\. Naruto will at one point be OP, simply because it is necessary for enemies like Kisame or Tobi or edo tensei Kages. He won't be super awesome at age 12. It will take time, dont worry.  
3\. There will be people Naruto forgives and others he doesn't. Gaara for example, will probably live, simply because he makes an interesting character.  
4\. Won't happen, all the nicknames make me cringe when overused.  
5\. There will be people dieing, dont worry ;)

Yorae Rasante: Sauske's twin-sister won't influence him a whole lot, since I'll be making her rather docile, or seemingly docile ;) As for Sasuke, many people claim his character comes from the villager's worship or the massacre itself. Personally, I believe Itachi's words after the massacre have a much bigger impact. Itachi tells him to hate him, to become strong by hating. And meanwhile the seniment for Naruto is to become strong to protect. Had Itachi let his mother live and told Sasuke, to get strong because Itachi would come back to kill his mother too, it would've changed quite a lot, I think. Whatever, that won't happen anyway. Sasuke will be pretty much the same as in canon. I think, Sasuke would become a recluse and 'avenger'-type wheter he had family or not, as long as he was told to hate Itachi and avenge his clan.

/Edit. Just saw some reviews I had to approve, which deserve a reply too :)

CW: Ahh, thanks! That's what happens when you rewrite stuff but don't do it correctly, gonna change that soon :)

Guest: Kina similar to ethanfigueroa, that reply covers most of what you mentioned

Xxxreal-whatever: Don't worry. Some will get away, others wont. It will all be somehwat reasonable...


	3. A new sensei

Thanks for the reviews! Here's chapter 3, replies to some reviews in the A.N. at the end, however there's one I'd like to reply to first.

To the guest who wrote "trash bye": I don't mind negative feedback, as long as it's constructive. If you'd tell me why the story is trash, I might be able to make it better...

This is kind of a filler chapter to skip some time until the action starts. Due to the bad weather, I had some time on my hands during the weekend, but weektimes are rather busy, so chapter 4 will probably come next weekend.

LOOKING FOR BETA!

I don't own Naruto!

* * *

 _What happened last time_

 _"There is one thing I would ask of you Naruto. You're a shinobi of Konoha now, please watch over my siblings while I'm gone."_

 _"I promise!" Naruto said with determination._

 _"Arigatō Naruto-kun. I'm afraid I'll have to leave now. Until next time," Itachi said and vanished into the night._

* * *

Chapter 3

 _18\. July 1298_

Despite having just graduated, the next few days were very depressing for our favourite blond. He spent the morning after his graduation in his apartment, looking at Itachi's gifts. The first was a jutsu scroll for the shunshin. Naruto bounced around his apartment quite a bit. However, there was also a note attached stating, that he should start with water-walking before trying the jutsu. Apparently, the jutsu could be quite dangerous when performed with bad chakra control.

His other gift was a storage scroll and when Naruto pushed some chakra into it, a box with fifty new ANBU-grade kunai and shuriken respectively popped out. Considering that ANBU only used the best equipment, one could assume that the weapons were quite expensive. Itachi had also added some strips of soft leather and a short instruction on how to put the leather on the kunai handle.

Naruto had debated with Itachi many times over the last year, about how kunai were technically close combat knives, not throwing knives, and apparently, Itachi tried to mock him a little bit about it. Naruto decided to wrap the leather around ten of the kunai and to use them as actual knives and the rest for throwing. After having eaten a healthy lunch, Naruto decided to visit the Hokage and show him Itachi's gift.

That was, when he heard the first rumours about the Uchiha massacre. Everyone was saying that Itachi went mad and killed his whole clan! Despite the fact, that he didn't believe Itachi would ever do that, how could a single man wipe out a whole clan? He knew Itachi was super strong, but there were other strong Uchihas for sure! To his utter dismay, he couldn't even ask his ji-san. The Hokage had absolutely no time for Naruto, due to the massacre and its aftermath.

-xXx-

 _25\. July 1298_

One week later, Naruto wasn't certain how to feel about Itachi. Although his ji-san had confirmed, that Itachi massacred his whole clan, Naruto didn't believe that Itachi – as the villagers put it – 'went around the bend'. He had visited Naruto on the night it happened and he seemed quite normal. If he were actually insane, he would have killed Naruto too, anything else didn't make sense. And he let his little siblings alive, so he definitely cared about them.

Finally, there was still that nagging thought, that even Itachi couldn't kill so many people without being noticed. In conclusion, Naruto really wasn't sure what to think. He decided he would simply ask Itachi himself one day, not even considering, that Itachi was now a S-ranked nuke-nin and Naruto as a shinobi of the leaf was therefore obliged to fight him.

Naruto had also realized that Koto-chan had to have been an Uchiha. When the women had come by the very first time, she had told him, that she was not supposed to visit him, so they had to keep it a secret. Instead of risking a 6-year-old accidently slipping, she simply didn't tell him her name and told Naruto to call her Koto-chan. He knew that she would've come by after she heard about his graduation or would've told him, if she were to be out of the village for a longer time.

The week had also a slight upside however. After having talked about Itachi with his ji-san, the Hokage took him shopping for his shinobi gear. He already had all the kunai and shuriken he needed, but there were still clothes and ninja wire and bandages and all the other stuff he had to buy. The Sandaime took him to his personal shinobi-outfitter, Hirashi's shinobi gear. Apparently Hirashi and his ji-san fought together in the first shinobi war and after being injured, Hirashi opened his shop. Ever since, Hiruzen was a loyal customer.

Naruto quite liked Hirashi, who treated him kindly. However, he declined the offer of buying a weapon, having already decided, that he first wanted to work on the more general aspects of his skills, before taking up a weapon. Although Naruto was already certain, that he would chose some sort of sword, it was just by far the coolest weapon.

Naruto left the store with his ji-san on his heels and clad in brand-new 'ANBU-style' pants. Meaning black cargo pants with lots of pockets, finished off by bandages around his shins. For his upper body, he had chosen a black sleeveless hoody, with red trim on the waist and shoulders and a custom made, red Uzumaki swirl on his back. The ensemble was finished by black shinobi sandals and red fingerless gloves. Naruto looked quite badass, if he may say so himself. He wore two standard pouches on the right side of his hip. One with medical equipment, such as bandages, blood-replenishing pills and soldier pills, and one for shuriken and standard kunai. Bandaged on his right thigh, was a pouch dedicated to his ten leather-hilted kunai and on his left thigh, was another pouch with various supplies such as ninja-wire and various seal-tags. All the pouches being a natural grey colour.

Having forgotten about his ninja registration, the Sandaime accompanied Naruto to the administrative building. After a quick photograph with his new look, he handed his registration form to the Sandaime and made his way to Ichiraku's ramen. The Hokage decided to retire to his office, instead of abusing his wallet even more, after the shopping tour Naruto had just made on his pocket.

-xXx-

 _17\. August 1298_

"Stupid, biased sensei and his stupid genin test," grumbled one Naruto Uzumaki on his way back to his apartment. Changing his mind, he jumped onto the next roof and made his way towards the Hokage tower, he needed advice and with Itachi gone, the only one he trusted was his ji-san.

Due to his early graduation and general disposition, Naruto just narrowly made the cut. Since he was still rather small compared to the usual graduates, his taijutsu wasn't rated too highly either. This led to him finishing in the middle of the pack of graduates. Therefore, his former teammates were both civilian born, finishing their exams in his grade-spectrum. Most students from ninja families ended up with top grades. Being only nine his – now former – teammates didn't take him too serious and they failed the test set by their jōnin-sensei spectacularly.

Now, he had two choices. Go back to the academy for another year, which seemed rather dull or join the genin-reserves. Joining the reserves meant getting missions from time to time filling up empty spots on teams. For low-rank missions it was usually a genin team with a jōnin-sensei, which was missing one genin, due to injuries. For higher ranked missions, sometimes reserve genin were picked to fill the spot of a missing chūnin temporarily. However, this also meant, that he had no way to participate in the chūnin exams and getting a field-promotion in peace times was a lot more difficult. Therefore, he needed his ji-san's advice, he would know what was best.

Unfortunately, the office was currently occupied by all the jōnin-senseis reporting back from their genin-tests. Although Naruto's patience had definitely gotten better, he was still fidgeting the time he was waiting outside the office. When the last jōnin had finally left, he quickly made his way inside.

"Oi jiji! I need your help. I failed the stupid genin test," Naruto said a little downtrodden.

"I know Naruto-kun, I just received the results. I guess you don't know what to do?"

"Hai jiji. I think I'll join the reserves, but then again, I don't want to be a genin forever!"

 _Flashback_

 _3\. August 1298 (one week before team assignments)_

 _"What do you mean I won't get a genin-team Hokage-sama? I thought you want me to work with Naruto."_

 _"Yes, that was the plan Kakashi-kun. However, due to_ _recent_ _events, we're short on personnel as you should well know. ANBU agents had to take over the village security and missions are stacking up. Not to mention that you're currently the only person with a sharingan in the village. The council voted against your appointment, because the elders want to keep you back, in order for you to take up the two Uchihas when they graduate."_

 _"But that's still four years from now. By then, any team I would take now, would've easily made ch_ _ūnin!", Kakashi exclaimed._

" _I know that Kakashi!", the Hokage said rising his voice a little, "But there's nothing I can do… Some pushed for the Uchihas to graduate early, but I blocked them from the start. I won't have them under the strain of ninja life, only a year after their whole clan was slaughtered. If I can, I will make certain, that they stay the whole five years in the academy."_

" _The elder will push for some_ _jōnin that will fail Naruto. Danzo still has his eyes on him. You won't allow Danzo to train him, so the only way for Danzo to get to him, is by making Naruto desperate for training!" Kakashi exclaimed angrily._

 _"Remember who you're talking to Kakashi," Hiruzen said, emitting some KI._

 _"Gomen Hokage-sama, I was out of line."_

 _"Hai, you were Kakashi-kun. Don't think I have made no contingency plan. If Naruto fails, I will push him into joining the reserves. I have complete control over mission assignments, therefore I can make certain that Naruto gets decent experience. He should be able to make two or three kage bunshin by now, so he can complete D-ranks all by himself. Then I will simply put him on as many C-ranks as possible, without rising too much suspicion. Having people think he gets preferential treatment would make the situation only worse."_

 _"But what about his training? Without a sensei to help him along, anything above C-rank could be dangerous."_

 _"My hope is, that one of the chūnin teams will take him on permanently after seeing his performance. They could help him along nicely. If nothing changes after a few months, I believe you could visit him from time to time in his training ground. He uses one of the more secluded, close to the wall, I believe its number 23._

 _"Naruto can be quite resourceful if need be, I'm certain he will find someone to show him some things sooner or later. And lastly, in case he's still a genin in four years, we'll simply put him on your team with the two Uchihas."_

 _"That could actually be quite nice. Having an experienced genin would make things easier… On the topic of early graduation, why is Naruto the only one graduating early? I was certain, more would try."_

 _"There were a few more that tried, but no one else passed and I don't believe there will be any early graduates in the near future. When I effectively blocked the push for the Uchihas' early graduation, I apparently put ideas in the head of some clan-heads. They want to abolish the whole concept of early graduation."_

 _"Why would they want to do that?"_

 _"Look at it this way. Of the two most recognized early graduates in the last twenty years, one has so much mental scarring that he's perpetually late to anything that isn't an A- or S-ranked mission, because he's staring at the Memorial Stone and the other just massacred almost his whole clan. Then of course there's another early graduate, that was betrayed by her Master and infected with a cursed seal."_

 _"That was mean Hokage-sama," Kakashi said childishly in response to the jibe on his lateness, "and there are many early graduates, that developed well."_

 _"My apologies, Kakashi-kun," came the completely insincere voice of Hiruzen, "and while you're correct, they don't think that the risk is worth it, especially in peace times. I'm certain, if war looms again on the horizon, early graduation shall be the norm once again. I'm just happy that Naruto made the cut in time."_

 _"Hai, me too. Very well, I have been assigned to border patrol since I won't become a sensei, so I won't be around for the next three months."_

 _"I know Kakashi-kun, I was the one who assigned it," Hiruzen said grinning slightly._

 _"But… but why would you do that to me?!"_

 _"Because even though you didn't have to be here, you didn't know that. You were so late, that you actually missed the whole damn assignment!"_

 _Kakashi deflated at the rebuke and hunched out of the office._

 _"Hai, hai Hokage-sama," he said, idly waving his hand over his shoulder._

 _Flashback end_

"Yes, I think joining the reserves might be the best for now Naruto-kun. You do know how the mission ranking system works, don't you?"

"Hai jiji, missions go from D- to S-rank, D-ranks being the easiest."

"Exactly. What you don't know, is that D-ranks are solely for genin. They are used to improve team-work and essential skills you need before going outside the village. Some would call them chores, but they're actually quite useful. For example, babysitting is not so different from escort or protection missions, it just doesn't involve fighting. Or catching runaway pets involves setting up traps and working together."

"Hai jiji! It sounds boring though..."

"Yes, I thought so Naruto-kun," Hiruzen chuckled. "However, due to the jutsu I taught you, you should be able to do those missions all on your own. If you do two or three per day you should have a nice steady income and still enough time for training. I will make certain, that you get some more interesting missions soon enough.

"Now, I have another gift for you. Do you know what this is?", the Sandaime asked, producing a sheet of paper.

"Erm… Looks like paper?"

"Hai Naruto-kun, but this is special paper. We call it chakra paper, it shows a ninjas affinity for nature manipulation. Take me as an example. When I was a genin, I had a strong affinity for earth and a minor for fire. When you master one elemental manipulation, more often than not, a ninja develops other affinities. By now I have mastered every nature manipulation, although my earth jutsus are still the strongest per chakra input."

"Woah jiji, that's amazing!", Naruto exclaimed, snatching the paper from Hiruzen's hand, "So how does it work?"

"You simply push your chakra into it Naruto-kun. It reacts depending on your affinity. Crumbling for earth, turning to ash for fire, crinkling for lighting, getting wet for water or splitting in half for air."

Naruto did as he was told and a moment later the paper became wet before splitting in half.

"That would mean affinity for water with a minor wind affinity Naruto-kun."

"Cool! This makes me even more badass. They never taught us how to master nature manipulation at the academy though…"

"With good reason. Nature manipulation is only needed to advance to jōnin rank Naruto-kun. As you know, becoming chūnin is possible by either field promotion or taking part in the chūnin-exams. However, you don't need to display any particular skill-set. It is different for jōnin. Since jōnin can become senseis themselves, they need to be at least competent in the three main shinobi arts. Competence in ninjutsu means, mastering at least one nature manipulation and being proficient in the use of a second element. There is also a lot of knowledge that needs to be showcased, and has to be learned by the aspiring jōnins themselves, at least the academic aspects.

"However, since you can't fully train your body yet, I thought you might like to start with nature manipulation. After all, it's never too early to hone your skills. Mastering an element is done in two steps or with some elements in three. Although, the first step is very similar with every element. I'll tell you about it in a minute. I suggest you start with water manipulation, since it's your dominant element, Naruto-kun.

"Using elemental jutsu usually means transforming your chakra directly into the chosen elemental nature. When mastering an element, you change that process. Instead of transforming chakra, you use it to influence said element.

"Take the Doton: Doryūheki no Jutsu (Earth Style: Mud Wall Technique) as an example. There are two ways to perform the jutsu. The unexperienced earth-user transforms chakra into earth and spits it out, creating a wall. Someone who has worked on earth manipulation, uses his chakra to influence the earth around him, rising an earth wall from the ground. This gives you a distinct advantage in a fight. You utilise less chakra for the same result and the wall appears much faster.

"On the other hand, the Suiton: Teppōdama no Jutsu (Water Style: Liquid Bullets), takes longer if you don't transform your chakra, since you would have to swallow water first, in order to manipulate it. It is of course possible to use the water within your body, but that's quite dangerous and not recommended.

"That is what makes water manipulation so special. While water is everywhere around us, it is often not in its pure form, but in the air or the plants. Tobirama Senju, a true master of water manipulation, was able to dissolve water out of anything. He is to this day, the only ninja to use water manipulation on such a scale. A true master of elemental ninjutsu knows when to transform his chakra into the chosen element and when to manipulate the surrounding resources.

"As you know, we use hand seals to mold and guide our chakra depending on what we want it to do. However, with good control over your element, it is possible to use less hand seals, since you have direct control over the element, without the need to guide it.

Halfway through the Hokages explanation Naruto became slightly glassy eyed. 'Tobirama Senju was one of the foremost Suiton users, at least now I know who the T.S. guy was that wrote How to ninja'. Bringing his focus back on the old man, Naruto heard the end of his monologue.

"Awesome jiji, so how does it work? It seems I have lots of training to do!"

"I planned to show this to you whether you passed or not, so I came prepared," the Sandaime said, picking up a lonely leaf from his desk. "As I said, nature manipulation for every element is very similar in the first step. You try to recreate what happened to the chakra paper with an ordinary leaf.

"While the goal is to influence and not create the element in the end, we have to start small. The idea is to do the nature transformation outside of your body. This way you experience the feeling of a chakra infused element, even though you created it," Hiruzen said, dampening the leaf in his hand with his chakra.

"Alright jiji, so I just try to transform my chakra without using hand seals and outside of my body, correct?"

"Exactly Naruto-kun. However, I suggest, you first learn a few D- or C-ranked water jutsus, to get a feel for your element. I believe the genin-part of the shinobi library contains a few. There might also be some other low ranked jutsu you want to look into. Remember, it's better to master a few, than being sloppy at many.

"One other thing. From now on you'll have to buy your groceries again yourself," Hiruzen said.

"But jiji! You know the merchants don't like me and don't want to sell me their stuff," Naruto exclaimed a little depressed.

"Hai Naruto, I know. However, you're a shinobi now. Maybe you should remind those merchants, that discriminating and mistreating one of the village's ninja is considered treason. As you know, there's only one punishment for traitors," the Hokage explained, "Now, off you go, I have paperwork to finish."

"Hai, I'll be on my way then! Bye jiji!"

-xXx-

 _18\. August 1298_

After one month of D-rank missions, Naruto had formed the distinguished opinion, that they sucked. At first it was somewhat funny to abuse his kage bunshins to do the work of four ninjas simultaneously. Quickly enough though, the whole thing became repetitive. On the upside, he had lots of time to train. His usual routine hadn't changed much since the academy, only that he now did D-ranks instead of studying.

He was still working more on agility and endurance rather than strength, since his body wouldn't be able to support real weight training. With his improving chakra control, he would be able to supplement his strength by enhancing his muscles with chakra. This would have to do until he was a little older. His speed at least was quite respectable by now.

His afternoon changed a little bit as well. Instead of doing chakra control for an hour, he let one clone do it the whole afternoon, which actually helped him more, if only by a margin. After lunch, he usually did one hour of each tai- and bukijutsu. He even added the use of ninja-wire to his shuriken- and kunai-throwing repertoire.

His taijutsu was still the standard academy style, although he had looked into both his parent's taijutsu scrolls. He didn't want to learn difficult stances from a scroll without supervision. He'd rather learn it correctly the first time instead of going back time and time again, because his balance was off or something like that. In his few taijutsu classes at the academy, he had seen how long it took other students to work out basic mistakes and he wanted to avoid that at all costs. So he just trained what he knew and hoped that someone could help him soon.

By three in the afternoon, he usually worked on his jutsu. His clone had become quite proficient at water walking, and by extension, Naruto himself too. After one month, he had added a few useful techniques to the standard academy three. As his ji-san had advised him, he learned a few Suiton jutsu. He didn't get the scrolls from the shinobi-library however, but from his parents' personal scrolls.

He had discovered the hidden door to his parents jutsu-vault only recently. It was protected by another blood seal hidden in the library. Since both his parents had quite the collection of jutsu for almost any shinobi art (the genjutsu section was rather small), he didn't have time to look through all of them. Naruto had obviously heard of his father's most famous jutsu, the Hiraishin and Rasengan, but knew they were too difficult for him.

Having the Sandaime as his role model, led Naruto to believe in quality over quantity. By now he had mastered one D-rank, the Suiton: Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu (Water Style: Water Clone Technique) and was still working on a C-rank, the Suiton: Teppōdama no Jutsu (Water Style: Liquid Bullets)

Naruto learned something else the academy didn't cover. First, Chakra seemed to get accustomed to a certain manipulation. After having used the kage bunshins for a few months already and now learning the mizu bunshin, he was able to create a mizu bunshin with only one handsign instead of two, after mastering the jutsu.

Second, even though he didn't know it then, it had made sense that the higher ranked the jutsu was, the more hand seals were needed. Looking through many jutsu scrolls this month, he had noticed a pattern.

D-rank: 1-2 hand seals  
C-rank: 3-9 hand seals  
B-rank: 10-15 hand seals  
A-rank: 16-24 hand seals  
S-rank: 25+ hand seals

Of course, there were inconsistencies, such as his father's Ninpou: Rasengan (Ninja-Art: Spiralling Sphere), which needed no hand seals at all. Another example were the elemental Dragon Bullet techniques, all of them required 44 hand seals, simply because there was a lot of shape manipulation involved, which was difficult to do without the help of hand seals to direct the chakra.

Aside from the elemental jutsu, he had mastered three others. His favourite and the gift from Itachi, the _Ninpou: Shunshin no Jutsu_ (Ninja-Art: Body Flicker Technique), the _Ninpou: Kage Kunai no Jutsu_ (Ninja-Art: Shadow Kunai Technique) and its counterpart, the _Ninpou: Kage Shuriken no Jutsu_ (Ninja-Art: Shadow Shuriken Technique), all three being D-rank jutsu although it was slightly misleading. The _shunshin_ , while simple in a standard application, required quite good chakra control and was very difficult to use in combat situations. Both kage kunai and kage shuriken had a similar issue. Creating only one copy with the jutsu was very simple. However, to make it effective in battle larger numbers were required and as such the chakra requirement was very high.

A few days ago he had started out with level three of fūinjutsu. Right from the bat, he noticed, that from now on his progress would be even slower. The stuff was becoming quite complex. He was happy however, that he could make his own standard-grade explosive tags by now. It saved him quite some money, having a kage bunshin writing up tags through the evenings. He hadn't started inventing his own seals yet, apart from the reversed gravity seal, and even that was devised from another seal. Naruto was quite certain, that invention would only start at level six and above, since there could go so much wrong when messing around with fūinjutsu.

All in all, he was quite capable for an almost fresh genin and could hold his own pretty well. This led to Naruto sitting happily on a stool at Ichiraku's slurping some ramen. He indulged himself today, since his first C-rank was coming up and with it, his first foray outside the village walls. It was a simple document delivery to the land of iron and the chance for trouble was quite small. While there were many bandits on the way to iron country, they rarely attacked ninja.

Naruto was assigned to a genin team, that had already worked together for a little over a year. He was filling the spot of a currently injured genin. He actually knew one of the two remaining genin, Hana Inuzuka. She was the sister of one of his former classmates, Kiba Inuzuka and the same age as Itachi. Unknown to Naruto, Hana was promoted to chūnin in the exams held in Kumogakure no Sato two weeks ago. Konoha had sent only one team to Kumo, since relations were still a little frosty over the kidnapping-incident five years ago.

The exams were also the cause for the now injured genin lying in the hospital, he had been defeated in the final round. However, since their team worked well together and they all got along, it was decided to keep the team in its current state and only switch a genin in for the next chūnin-exams, should the other two want to participate again.

The only other noteworthy thing, was the slight upswing in Naruto's social life. He had gone out to one of the barbeque restaurants with Chōji and Shikamaru a few times. Once, even Shino and Kiba accompanied them. The Uchihas kept to themselves of course, and so did their fan club.

 _C_ h _ō_ ji and Shikamaru were turning from mere acquaintances to friends and Naruto was rather happy about it. The two were very surprised, when Naruto met up with them one evening after the academy had finished. They had thought, that he dropped out and not graduated early. Shows how little he had actually talked with the two of them, before his graduation. It was also then, that he learned, that early graduation was not possible anymore and the remaining students had to sit through all five years in the academy.

 _-xXx-_

 _13\. November 1298_

Over the following two months Naruto had completed six more C-ranks, four of them with Hana's team. He got along with both Hana's teammates and the ninja of other teams, he went on missions with. To Naruto's astonishment, the other ninja were quite friendly to him, even if he had to live through a few jibes and taunts about his age and being a rookie. He put it down to them not knowing about his burden, because they were too young. Naruto even had a few decent spars with Hana and got to know her a little better. Apparently, she was planning to become a veterinarian, which was the reason for her to stay on her genin team. Her goal was to pick up some medical ninjutsu on the way and then join the reserve corps, while taking care of the many ninken the Inuzuka Clan owned _._

Since Naruto usually did the D-ranks all on his own, his payment was quite decent and after looking into his savings, he decided to cut down to only one mission per day, so he could spend more time training. One of his personal highlights was his own birthday. He had never celebrated during the ky _ūbi-festival, for multiple reason. This year however, Shikamaru, Chōji and Kiba came by his apartment. Chōji's mother had even made a cake for him and they all brought presents._

 _Another nice thing,_ was being invited to Shikamaru's birthday party. It wasn't anything special, a simple dinner at their usual barbeque place. There were a few more people, for example Ino Yamanaka. Naruto learned, that the Akimichi, Nara and Yamanaka clan-heads were quite close, after having been on a team together for a long time and becoming famous as the 'Ino-Shika-Ch _ō_ -trio'.

Of course, Naruto also met with his ji-san from time to time. Whether it was to discuss his training or going to Ichiraku's for some ramen.

Concerning shinobi matters, the six C-ranks he had participated in until now, were all rather boring. While he liked the change of scenery and getting to know other ninjas, not once did he have to actually fight. Naruto wasn't certain what to think of it. On one hand, he wanted to prove himself, but on the other, he was a little apprehensive about his first kill. He of course knew, that being a ninja involved killing others, being an ANBU-agent even more so, but he didn't have to like it.

At least he now knew, that he could keep up with other genin and chūnin in terms of stamina. Even more important, due to the contact with other ninja, he learned quite a lot about Konoha's ninja corps. The most crucial information being, that the new and upcoming taijutsu-specialist, Maito Gai, had a big rivalry going, with the famous Elite Jōnin Kakashi Hatake. He also learned that the so called 'Green Beast of Konoha', was a little dense in certain aspects. Naruto didn't like manipulating people, even less so if they were comrades, in this case however, he made an exception. He needed help after all.

Thus, we find Naruto currently sitting on a roof outside a shinobi bar, frequented by various jōnin, including Maito Gai. Idly waiting for his target to appear, while his thoughts drifted back to his training.

After having mastered both the _Suiton: Teppōdama no Jutsu_ (Water Style: Liquid Bullets Technique) and the _Suiton: Mizurappa no Jutsu_ (Water Style: Trumpet Technique), he didn't find any other C-rank Water jutsu he wanted to learn. He thought the _Suiton: Suirō no Jutsu_ (Water Style: Water Prison Technique) sounded interesting, but as long as he was so small compared to potential enemies and relied heavily on his speed, a jutsu that forced him to stay still, wasn't the brightest idea. Therefore, he concentrated more on water manipulation and fūinjutsu.

Both came along quite well. Naruto was certain he would get the nature manipulation down soon, being already able to dampen parts of the leaf. As he suspected, fūinjutsu became a lot more complex since reaching level three and without help, his progress was rather slow. It was nothing that killed his mood however, as he was certain, that soon enough, he would find someone to help him. His foremost priority was finding a taijutsu-sensei and so his mind went back to his impending 'mission'.

Right as Naruto turned his focus back on the building, a ninja clad in green spandex and orange legwarmers exited through the door. After waiting another moment to make certain that he was the only one leaving, Naruto jumped off the roof and walked towards the jōnin.

"Ne, Maito-san!", Naruto exclaimed. The spandex wearing ninja turned around and looked towards Naruto.

"Ahh, you must be Naruto-kun, the latest early graduate. What can I help you with?"

"Well, I heard that you know Hatake-san quite well?"

"Of course, I know Kakashi, we're eternal rivals!", Gai exclaimed, sporting a 'good-guy' pose. Being nearly blinded by the flashing teeth, Naruto squinted his eyes a little.

"Well, you see, I heard that Hatake-san is the best to ask about taijutsu in Konoha and since I'm in the reserve pool, I need a sensei. I thought about asking him, but before I do that, I wanted a second opinion."

"My rival the best in taijutsu?", Gai gasped, "That is most untrue my youthful friend and I will prove it. You are most welcome to join me for my light morning workout. Meet me at 5 a.m. in training ground six, if you're interested." Naruto sweat dropped a little. 'That was easier than stealing sweets from a baby,' Naruto thought.

"I will think about it Maito-san, thank you for the opportunity."

"Nonsense, it is Gai-sensei now, Naruto-kun."

"Hai, Gai-sensei."

-xXx-

 _5 minutes later, Hokage tower_

"He actually tried to manipulate you, using your rivalry with Kakashi-kun?", Hiruzen asked, his left eyebrow shooting upwards.

"Hai, Hokage-sama. It was most unyouthful by Naruto-kun. However, considering that we're ninjas it was almost youthful again. I'm quite conflicted about it to be honest."

"I see… I'm happy that you accepted him, I'm certain there's a lot you can teach him.

"Hai Hokage-sama, I'll do my best.

* * *

 _Ninja – A how-to, Chapter 2 Mind and Body_

There are many things to be said about training when it comes to ninja, but most importantly, it never ends. No jutsu is perfect, no ninja is perfect. Live by those words and you shall overcome your enemies and sometimes even yourself.

While most shinobi and kunoichi are aware of the fact, that they are required to train, many forget the importance of their minds. Jutsu, strength and speed won't always win you a battle, more often than not it's the quick thinker that comes out on top.

However, there is more to the mental discipline than strategy and planning. Mental fortitude is just as important. To withstand killer-intent or the taunts of an opponent in order to stay calm and concentrated on your goal is critical for a ninja.

Further there is the danger of trauma. Sooner or later any ninja witnesses things that are difficult to accept. To be able to work through issues and keep your mind healthy is paramount for ninja. It may even come to the point, that a ninja is forced to do something he or she may regret for the rest of their lives, for the good of the village. Shinobi and kunoichi kill, steal and sabotage for the good of their village and not every human is capable to do such things and simply carry on. We must be prepared for the ill we do in order for our village to thrive.

When it comes to the body of a ninja, sooner or later a decision has to be made, how a body shall develop. There are obviously limits and predetermined factors set by mother nature to be accounted for. Not every type of body is capable of great speed or great strength. Women are generally considered weaker as they can not achieve the same muscle growth as men. It is idiotic to believe, that kunoichi are actually weaker however. Agility is an often overlook factor when it comes to physical prowess and it is an area where women are naturally better. Further the use of chakra can level the playing field considerably.

When one talks about speed there is often misunderstanding. First of all, to be able to move fast, the body must reach an incredible balance in muscle mass. You want to be as light as possible but have as much muscle as possible to move your weight. It takes a lot of dedication to achieve such a feat. It is often easier to go with a pseudo-speed increase. Instead of moving fast, you move sooner. Reaction timing is often more important than speed. Most battles are fought within close quarters and the actual movements are short, as such speed doesn't come into play as we are led to believe. Instead being able to react a fraction faster than your opponent is often the bigger advantage.

There is some agreement when it comes to the actual training of the body. It is my opinion that endurance trumps all else in the beginning stages of a ninja career. No matter where your path leads you, having high endurance will always be helpful and it sets a good grounding for further improvement. Until such time, that one determines where his path leads him, it is folly to be singular in your physical development. Weight training can be excessively dangerous in the early years of a human and as such should be left for specialized improvement. I advise however to start early with the training of your explosive strength as well as your reaction timing as both go hand in hand. Knowing what is about to happen but having your muscles not cooperate is one of the most disconcerting things to ever experience.

Another aspect of training that is often overlooked concerns eating and drinking habits. Alcohol and other stimulants are poison to your body and should only be consumed rarely. To improve your physical fitness, it is important that you eat the right food. Proteins and calories need to be consumed in the right amount coupled with the right fats and other supplements.

* * *

A.N. Before coming to the reviews I'll make a list of new jutsu mentioned in the chapter [complete list in the last chapter]. There's one other thing I wanted to clear up. It's kinda related to a review questioning why I gave Minato some background (there's nothing in canon) [Minato background has been deleted in rewrite]. The blood-relation to Tsunade. In canon Naruto reminds Tsunade of her little brother and his general character and determination convince her to return to Konoha. Since my Naruto is different and more mature, I wanted Tsunade to have another viable reason to become Hokage - being with her reminding family (she isn't aware of Naruto yet, will be explained later...)

Jutsu-List (information from Naruto wiki):

 _Doton: Doryūheki no Jutsu_ (Earth Style: Mud Wall Technique): The user creates a solid wall of earth as a form of defence. Chakra is either converted to earth within the body and then spat out to form the wall or the user can manipulate pre-existing earth to form the wall.

 _Suiton: Teppōdama no Jutsu_ (Water Style: Liquid Bullets): After kneading and converting their chakra into water, the user will shoot one or more condensed blasts of water at the target. The size is dependent on how much water the user can store in their body.

 _Suiton: Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu_ (Water Style: Water Clone Technique): Uses water as a medium to create clones of the user by either using surroundings or spitting out water. Like shadow clones, these clones have displayed the ability to perform techniques. Unlike shadow clones, however, water clones only possess one-tenth of the user's power. The range of the clone is also limited, as it cannot travel very far from the original body without losing form. When these clones are struck with a sufficient amount of damage, they will revert to their water form

 _Ninpou: Rasengan_ (Ninja-Art: Spiralling Sphere): Why am I even doing this... The Rasengan is a spinning ball of chakra formed and held in the palm of the user's hand.

 _Ninpou: Shunshin no Jutsu_ (Ninja-Art: Body Flicker Technique): By using the Body Flicker Technique, a ninja can move short to long distances at an almost untraceable speed. To an observer, it appears as if the user has teleported. It is accomplished by using chakra to temporarily vitalise the body and move at extreme speeds. The amount of chakra required depends on the overall distance and elevation between the user and the intended destination.

 _Ninpou: Kage Kunai/Shuriken no Jutsu_ (Ninja-Art: Shadow Kunai/Shuriken Technique): Creates material copies of thrown kunai/shuriken. Number of copies depends on chakra-input and will/imagination of the user (Yin-release). _/Edit. As ReddFoxx mentioned in his review, the actual version is an A-rank jutsu (I changed it to C-rank in the meantime). I noticed, that I used a wrong wiki article after having written everything and just sort of rolled with it. In the end I made a mix between the_ Shadow Shuriken Jutsu _and the_ Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. _The first is what Naruto and Sauske use in canon against Zabuza (hiding a fuma shuriken in the shadow of another) and the latter the actual A-rank, which "creates up to a thousand shadow clones from one shuriken". Since I'm a lazy fuck, I used the basics of the latter, but toned it down, i.e. a thousand copies would consume a shitton of chakra... :) Personally I'd say, that creating copies of objects would be justfiable C-rank when creating copies of a human is B-rank, pleace don't crucify my lazy bum..._

Reviews:

ReddFoxx: Thanks, fixed it (that is for chapter 2, the guy has an eye for mistakes apparently...)

TimothyB: You might be onto something.. ;)

LetsSeeIfICanDoThisToo: I didn't do it, in order for Naruto to feel betrayed. It's just that Minato has almost no background whatsoever. Naruto wanted to thank Itachi for all he did and it's something that is plausible and open up options for later. Plus, I plan to give Naruto a weapon, that isn't traditionally used by shinobi (it's nothign outlandish, dont worry) and I wanted to have lots of possiblities :)

ethanfigueroa2929: I'm still not certain what to do with Hinata. Maybe I'll make her friends with Izumi or something, both being the more serious kunoichi (read: not fangirls) in the class. He will have certain traits of Tobirama. Taking shinobi matters very serious for a start. Naruto won't have Tobirama's prodigious strategic mind, or at least not for a long while, nor his political thinking. Naruto is smarter than in canon, but he's still someone who learns better when doing things. He studies because it's a necessity, not because he enjoys it so much.


	4. First blood

I'm super exicted for this chapter. It's rather long (~8.5k) and I could've probably made two chapters out of it, but here we are... As before, A.N. at the end, thanks for the reviews. Added an updated timeline. The second paragraph of my A.N. is somewhat important and should probably be read... I hope there aren't any major mistakes in here :)

LOOKING FOR BETA!

I don't own Naruto!

* * *

 _What happened last time_

 _"He actually tried to manipulate you, using your rivalry with Kakashi-kun?", Hiruzen asked, his left eyebrow shooting upwards._

 _"Hai, Hokage-sama. It was most unyouthful by Naruto-kun. Although, considering that we're ninjas it was almost youthful again. I'm quite conflicted about it to be honest," Gai said with a contemplative look on his face._

 _"I see… I'm happy that you accepted him, I'm certain there's a lot you can teach him._

 _"Hai Hokage-sama, I'll do my best._

* * *

Chapter 4

 _14\. November 1298_

At 5 a.m. sharp, Naruto's landed in a clearing in training ground six, where he could see Gai already waiting. 'I just hope he doesn't expect a change of clothes from me,' Naruto thought apprehensively.

"Good morning Naruto-kun! Welcome to your first training," Gai exclaimed with way too much exuberance for 5 a.m. Naruto idly waved his hand, still half-asleep and mumbled out a good morning.

"Let us start with a light warm-up before you show me your taijutsu!" Gai exclaimed. The 'light' warm-up turned out to be not so light. Naruto started to think about whether this was such a good idea or not, his new sensei was definitely special.

This train of thought continued right until they started sparring. He didn't really expect to defeat a jōnin, but it seemed that Naruto didn't pose even the slightest challenge for Gai.

"You're quite fast Naruto-kun. How much do you train your body?", Gai asked the gasping boy.

"Thank you Gai-sensei. I didn't want to do some crazy work-out without supervision, so I only run and do stuff with my own body-weight. Pull-ups, push-ups and the like. I wasn't sure when I could start to use weights, without hampering my bodily growth, so I don't use them," Naruto said, still catching his breath.

"Understandable Naruto-kun. I'm happy, that you take care of your body. I suggest that you start using some wrist- and ankle-weights. However, only put about five pounds per arm and ten pounds per leg. Using low amounts will not damage your growth and it is actually more of a stamina training, than strength training. Now however, I think breakfast would be a good idea Naruto-kun, we can discuss your training in the meantime."

"Hai Gai-sensei, where do you want to go? Jiji said ramen for breakfast is unhealthy and I only ever go to Ichiraku's, when not cooking myself." That Naruto was also only welcomed at Ichiraku's and grudgingly allowed at the barbeque restaurant, when he went with Chōji and Shikamaru, was left unsaid.

"Follow me Naruto-kun!"

Twenty minutes later, the two of them sat in a café close to the Hokage tower. Naruto ordered what he usually made for himself; rice, fermented soybeans and a fried egg, and of course tea.

"Alright Naruto-kun, here's my proposition: As long as I'm not on missions, you can train with me. However, I'm not sure what you want to learn, so why don't you tell me what you wanted to do, before we go over your work-out regime."

"Well, I was looking for someone to train me in taijutsu is because someone gifted me with some scrolls for two different styles. I didn't want to learn something not suited for me and needed someone for a second opinion. I suspect I was meant to combine the two. There's also the fact that learning taijutsu from a scroll just begs for mistakes to be implemented in the forms," Naruto explained.

"I agree. What are the styles you received named?"

" _The Hachidori_ (Hummingbird)- and the _Shio no ken_ (Tidal fist)-style."

"I see, I think I can help you with both. We shall start on it tomorrow. I have a mission scheduled in three days' time, so I can help you with the easier katas of your new taijutsu style the next two days. While I'm on my mission, you can perfect them. We repeat that process when I'm back and you've become proficient in my absence.

"Now onto your training regime, I suggest the following: Try to find a sparring partner for the days I will not be in the village or simply don't have time. If you want, you can meet me at 4 a.m. at the village gates and take part in my stamina training. Afterwards we shall spar for a while and after breakfast we then work on your style for about two hours. Afterwards you can do your work-out and practice katas until lunch. The afternoon is up to you, since I have my own training to keep up with."

"That's awesome Gai-sensei, thanks a bunch!", Naruto said with a toothy smile. "Can we start right now? I came prepared and have the scrolls with me," Naruto said still grinning.

"Of course we can start right away. Before we leave, you might find it interesting that the two styles you mentioned were used by two rather outstanding ninja of Konoha in the past. Although both of them used hand to hand combat more as a supplementary skill, as such not many people remember them. I believe you will make them both famous once more," Gai finished, dropping a roll of ryō on the table, before motioning for Naruto to follow him outside.

The two walked casually through Konoha back to training ground six.

Handing the first scroll to his new sensei, Naruto was extremely excited to start and fidgeted while Gai read it.

"Alright, let's start with the basics. The Hummingbird-style is quite similar to the Uchiha's interceptor fist. However, instead of heavy counters, it relies on quick jabs at sensitive spots. Probably because there is only so much time to react, without the help of a sharingan. Say Naruto, why do you want to combine it with another style? The hummingbird-style has proven to be quite powerful."

"Well, I feel like both styles do one part right. I prefer the quick counters to the _Shio no ken_ 's heavy hits and grapple moves. On the other hand, I can't really use direct blocks since I will be much smaller and possibly weaker than my enemies for at least a few years. As the scroll explains, the style is based on a strong defence and then counters. The _Shio no ken_ is much more about evasion and fluent movement and if I could combine them, maybe I can find a balance."

"I see. This is a very youthful goal Naruto-kun, I will help you as much as I can! However, learning and combining two styles will take a lot of time, being proficient in both styles alone will take a few years at least," Gai cautioned.

"Hai, I know. But in one or two years I can use kage bunshin to get the muscle-memory down, thanks to the fur ball in my gut," Naruto said with a toothy grin, "it's high time he proves useful for something anyway."

"You aware of your burden?" Gai asked, his gargantuan eyebrows rising up to his hairline.

"Oops, shouldn't have said that," Naruto said sheepishly, "Yes, I know about the kyūbi. I'm actually surprised, that Hokage-jiji hasn't figured out by now, that I know about it. I mean, bijū sealing comes up in the first chapter of the fūinjutsu book he bought me. It's in there as an example of what fūinjutsu is capable of," Naruto explained. Telling a jōnin about how he found two letters from his parents in a box, stolen from the Hokage's storage room, would probably not go down too well, even if said box technically belonged to Naruto anyway.

Thinking about it now, Naruto figured he was quite lucky, that his ji-san hadn't seen him in his parent's house, using his crystal ball. He would have to be more careful in the future, only going back in the night would definitely lower the risk. Keeping his last thoughts in mind, he turned his attention back to Gai.

"Say, Naruto-kun, why don't you want Hokage-sama to know, that you know? It's not like he can do anything about it."

"I don't know really. I think, I'm just curious, as to when he thinks me ready and trusts me enough, to tell me."

"Very well, now, let's start with those katas, Naruto-kun!"

"Hai, Gai-sensei!"

-xXx-

 _19\. March 1299_

Time flew by for Naruto. Aside from completing a few more C-ranks, he picked up a new project. While his immediate goal was to be promoted to chūnin and then join ANBU, his dream of becoming Hokage, was still on his mind. Therefore, he started looking into the administrative aspects of Konoha, i.e. who was responsible for what.

It was while reading about mission assignments, that he figured out, that his ji-san was subtly helping him along in his career. Naruto was assigned to C-ranks much more frequently and much sooner after graduation, than all the other reserve genin. It was both heartening and humiliating at the same time. On the one hand, he had someone looking after him, on the other hand, he always thought that he was assigned more C-ranks, simply because he did such a good job.

Naruto kept going out with his friends occasionally. Sometimes Shikamaru and Chōji were even accompanied by others of Naruto's former class, such as Ino. He played Shogi with Shikamaru only once and got utterly destroyed. While his tactical thinking wasn't that horrendous, he was more the person to make up things on the fly, instead of meticulously planning everything beforehand. He vowed to work on that, at a later date.

Unfortunately, Naruto wasn't able to participate in the chūnin-exams, that had taken place in mid-February. While Hana's team mate was fit for duty once again and they would've let him take Hana's spot on the team, the exams were held in Iwagakure. The relations between the two villages were still rather hostile, and the Hokage didn't want to risk sending only one or two teams to Iwa. While he didn't think, that the teams would've been attacked during their stay in the village, it was common for the 'home'-village to have by far the most teams participating. The possibility, that Iwa teams would directly target Konoha teams, was quite high. This was all apart from the fact, that Naruto looked distinctively similar to the Yondaime, which would've painted an even bigger target on their back.

At least he convinced Hana to spar with him from time to time. Her clan was somewhat specialized in taijutsu and despite slowly turning into a support ninja, it was important to keep her skills sharp. And sharp they were, she outclassed Naruto quite a bit.

Training with Gai-sensei for four months, coupled with regular spars saw Naruto making huge strides in his taijutsu. His improved work-out was noticeable as well. While it was simply impossible to build up huge muscles as a nine-year-old, Naruto noticed his kicks and punches becoming stronger.

Following Gai's advice, Naruto used his training weights only for his workouts. It was useless to train with weights and not be accustomed to fight without them later.

While Hana still pummelled Naruto into the ground more often than not, there was definite improvement. Being new to his taijutsu-style meant, that Naruto had to think about each move, since it wasn't completely committed to memory yet.

As with taijutsu, his various other skills were improving steadily. He still hadn't found anyone to improve on his genjutsu inability, but he could make due, until he was promoted to chūnin. Since he didn't dare to pick up any B-rank jutsu yet, he branched into a different element and mastered the _Fūton: Reppūsh_ _ō no Jutsu_ (Wind Style: Gale Palm Technique). It was more of a supplementary technique and rather easy to learn. Combined with shuriken or kunai however, it became very deadly.

Naruto was very proud to have mastered the first step in water manipulation just the previous day, and was overall quite content with his progress in the eight months since his graduation. He had also found a book on ninjutsu in this parents' library. ' _Ninjutsu for dummies_ ' spanned from jutsu creation to the intricacies of elemental ninjutsu. The guy who wrote it (Naruto had never heard of any shinobi called Hiruzen) really knew what he was talking about. He planned to ask the Hokage to show him the next step for water manipulation, after he returned from his upcoming mission.

Naruto was quite nervous, since this mission would mark another milestone in his shinobi career. His first B-rank. Naruto was aware, that there was a reason for his ji-san to assign him this mission. While he had already completed over ten C-ranks, all of them were either deliveries or pre-emptive protection details. The presence of shinobi had scared away any possible threat each time. This mission however, was different.

Naruto arrived at the village gate at 5.55 a.m. via shunshin. One other ninja, clad in standard chūnin garb, with a katana strapped to his back and wearing a bandana, was already waiting. He looked up, when he heard the tell-tale sound of swirling leaves, announcing Naruto's arrival.

"Ah Naruto, good, you're early. My name is Hayate Gekkō, Tokubetsu Jōnin, your captain for this mission and leader of Team Hayate. We are scheduled to leave at 6.15, so the other two should arrive in a few minutes."

"Good morning Hayate-san. If you don't mind, I was assigned this mission only yesterday evening and didn't receive any information, aside from it being B-rank."

"No problem, Naruto. It's actually a little complicated. The mission was given to all of us on short notice, which is the reason we're lacking our last member. We usually work with Anko Mitarashi, but she works part-time in Torture and Interrogation and they need her today. We're assigned to terminate a bandit camp, which is supposed to be based around the border of Hi no Kuni and Tetsu no Kuni. In truth, the camp is a few miles into iron country." Hayate explained.

"So why aren't the samurais taking care of it?"

"Because the Daimyo of Iron country is being a dick," Hayate snorted. "You see, the bandits only attack merchants leaving the land of iron and only those without ninja escorts. While it isn't exactly good for business, the Daimyo doesn't really care about it. There are few alternatives to the metal working OF iron country, so merchants travel the roads despite the danger."

"So, he just lets them kill merchants, because he doesn't want to risk his own men and doesn't want to pay for ninjas?" Naruto asked incredulous.

"Yup, exactly. Technically we're not even allowed to do this mission, because it was assigned to Konoha by the fire Daimyo. As you know, we're only allowed to work on foreign territory, if the Daimyo of said land knows about it. These kinds of missions are usually taken by ANBU, since they simply don't give a shit about such rules," Hayate said.

"Considering the location of their camp, it's safe to assume, that there's at least one ninja with the bandits, who knows about these rules. However, since they're still quite close to the border, Hokage-sama decided that a normal team can do it. Personally, I think, he just wants to stick it to the Daimyo of iron country," Hayate smiled. "That's also the reason, that in the assignment scroll, the bandit camp is said to be at the border, so we're covered." Just as Hayate finished with his explanation, the two missing team members arrived in quick succession.

"Good, you're here. Guys, this is Naruto, he's replacing Anko for this mission. Naruto, this is Emiko Maki," Hayate said, pointing to the sole kunoichi of team. Emiko wore standard chūnin equipment, and looked to be in her late teens, standing at about 5'5" with chocolate brown eyes. She had her brown hair in a braid, that reached down to her lower back.

"And this is Koji Yamanaka," Hayate continued, now pointing to a tall ninja in his early twenties, with short platinum blonde hair and green eyes.

Naruto waved his hand in a two-finger salute, "Yo, nice to meet you!"

"Hey gaki," Emiko exclaimed, before turning to Hayate, "didn't know Kakashi started to corrupt little kids already." Naruto gained a tick mark on his forehead, when she said 'little kid' and glared at her. He might be used to the jabs by now, didn't mean he had to like it. Plus, with him standing at just under 4'8", she wasn't that much taller than him (or at least, that's what Naruto tried to make himself believe).

"I don't think he did, to be honest. Kakashi just spent two months on vacation after his discharge from ANBU and the subsequent border control duty," Hayate replied.

"Whatever, we should head out. Emiko, Koji, you'll have to tell Naruto about your skill-set on the way to the border, same goes to you Naruto. I'll talk with you when we make camp. The plan is to arrive at the border in the evening and then attack at dawn. Now, let's go, I take point, Emiko you have the rear, Naruto, Koji take a side each."

 _-xXx-_

Lying in his sleeping bag, Naruto thought about the coming day. It was early in the morning and after spending the first part of the night on outlook, he laid awake for the remaining time, being unable to sleep. He mentally went over everything he learned the previous day. Team Hayate was primarily an assassination and extermination team, but was also capable of recon-missions.

Koji was the team's support ninja. Apart from his clan's signature mind-walking jutsu, he was proficient in genjutsu and had decent knowledge of the human body, due to some medical training. He was capable of using the _Iryō: Shōsen no Jutsu_ (Medical: Mystical Palm Technique) to a degree and knew a lot about poisons and their antidotes. Another valuable skill he possessed, were his sensory abilities, although they were quite weak, and limited to about half a mile.

Emiko was, despite her small frame, the team's heavy hitter. With a high affinity for fire, she was the ninjutsu expert in team Hayate. She was very capable in taijutsu and deadly accurate with all sorts of thrown weapons. Emiko took to teasing Naruto on their way to the border. Usually, Naruto would've reacted rather loudly to the constant teasing, but he was on a mission and tried to ignore her as much as possible.

Hayate, aside from being their leader, was an all-around type of shinobi, but specialized in Kenjutsu. He was capable in all three, main shinobi arts and had even taken to look into fūinjutsu a little bit. He had a very calm personality and told Naruto also a little about their missing team mate. Naruto couldn't fill her role perfectly, but knowing about her, made it at least easier on him.

Apparently Anko had quite the impact on all of them. She was an assassination and interrogation expert. Thus, she was very knowledgeable about the human body and all sorts of poison. She was the reason for Koji's interest in medical ninjutsu and human biology. There was nary a ninja, who wouldn't break under the combined assault of Anko's physical- and Koji's mental torture.

The team had been working together for a few years already. Forced to bring some balance to Anko's more loud and boisterous personality, had made Hayate much calmer. Emiko, who was rather shy at first, had taken to teasing as well, when she couldn't take any more abuse from Anko and became a lot more sociable and open.

Everything considered, Naruto had big shoes to fill. However, since their current mission was very straight forward, he was confident to perform statisfingly. Naruto was ripped from his introspection at 4 a.m. by Hayate, who went around, quiety rousing his other two team mates from their sleep.

Quickly gathering their equipment, they made their way over the border and into the land of iron. With the exception of Naruto, they all had a small breakfast of fruits and rice bread, while jumping through the forest. Feeling quite nervous and a little nauseous already, eating was the last thing on Naruto's mind. However, he didn't want to go into a fight with a completely empty stomach, so he took to munch on a shinobi ration bar.

One hour later and a few miles into the land of iron, the team split up, to look for the bandit camp. The order was to engage under no circumstances and regroup at their current location in 30 minutes. Naruto quickly created a few kage bunshin and headed out. Despite Koji's skill as a sensor, they had quite the area to cover and not a whole lot of time.

It was indeed Koji, who found the bandits first and informed his team, as soon as they had regrouped.

"There were about twenty-five of them sleeping in the open," he started. "I saw six guards, three on elevated positions, each looking either North, East, or South and three patrolling the perimeter."

"Why is no one watching to their West?", Hayate interrupted.

"Oh, right. They made camp in a forest clearing northwest from here, but to their west is a massive rock formation, blocking access to the camp."

"Access for bandits and civilians or for ninjas?"

"We won't have a problem entering from the West," Koji said with a sadistic smile, understanding what went through his captain's mind.

"Good, anything else of importance?"

"Yes. In the middle of their camp, there is a single tent. If they have indeed former ninjas with them, they're probably there. It's also safe to assume, that they store the stolen weapons there."

"Alright, so there're no more than 35 hostiles, here's the plan. The common bandits are of no consequence, the most important thing is to eliminate their leaders and get the stolen goods back. We have to take out the guards first and then quickly move onto the tent.

"Naruto, you will approach the camp from the east side, Koji from the north and I from the south. All three of us will have to take out two guards each, as simultaneous as possible. Meanwhile Emiko will move onto the rock-formation.

"When the guards are dead, we're going to wreak havoc. Use flashy techniques or explosive-tags and kill as many as possible as fast as possible. We have to confuse them and lure them away from Emiko," Hayate explained and then turned to their female team mate. "You have a single task Emiko. As soon as we have their attention, use your most destructive fire jutsu. How far have you come in using the _Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku_ (Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation)?"

"It's not that good. I can spread it to about 20-foot, but it takes a lot out of me. I don't know what I thought, when I decided to pick up a bloody S-rank jutsu as chūnin," Emiko replied with a grimace.

"Don't worry Emiko, it should suffice. It's a round tent and when you hit it from above, you can set the whole ceiling on fire," Koji interjected.

"Perfect. Emiko, your timing will be key, but I'd rather have you use the jutsu too early, than too late. If you're too out of it from using it, me or Koji can easily assist you, but if you're using it too late and whoever is inside the tent leaves due to us attacking, the whole thing would be in vain.

Naruto, when the tent is set on fire, your opposition will probably lessen quickly. When that happens, I want you to use your _Suiton: Mizurappa no Jutsu_ _(Water Style: Trumpet Technique)_ to quench the fire."

"Huh? Why do you want to put so much effort into setting it ablaze, only for me to quench it again?", Naruto asked confused.

"It's quite simple. If we don't light it up, their leader – or leaders – will have time to gather their troops. With them being chased out of the tent, by threat of being burned alive, they will probably panic as well. However, we don't want to destroy the stolen goods, so we have to put the fire out again. The panic combined with the steam you will be producing, should make them easy targets," Hayate explained patiently and Naruto nodded in response.

"Alright, dawn will soon be upon us, we don't have much time. Get in position, the camp is about ten minutes from our position, direction northwest. Koji will need some time to circle the camp, so timer to kill the guards, is set to twenty minutes, let's go."

-xXx-

 _6 a.m. – just outside the camp_

Naruto crept steadily closer through the thick forest towards his target, the stationary guard who was sitting on a tree branch seemingly half -asleep. He had to get close to the treeline in order to see over the camp towards the rock formation, from which Emiko was supposed to give the 'go'-signal. A minute earlier he had detected the patrolling bandit, who was now coming from the south towards his position. Naruto was shacking slightly in anticipation of what was to come.

Silently moving onto a tree branch above still unsuspecting sentry, he listened for the other guard moving through the woods and glanced towards the rock formation every few seconds. Just as he heard the crack of a branch, he saw a little light blink in the west – his signal. Mentally starting to count the seconds, he had to wait another moment until the patrolling guard came into view.

Naruto pulled a kunai out of his pouch and threw it at the guard and accelerated it with a _Fūton: Reppūshō no Jutsu_ (Wind Style: Gale Palm Technique). He didn't wait to see the result and instead dropped from his position towards the stationary sentry, kunai in hand the guard barely noticed him before his throat was cut. Naruto held onto the body, so it wouldn't make sound by dropping to the forest floor and instead draped him sideways over the tree branch.

Naruto kept starring at the blood running through his fingers, before the sounds of battle ripped him from his near catatonic state. He knew what he had to do. Making his way up the tree next to him, he swiftly jumped towards the edge of the clearing, while putting his good kunai back into the pouch on his right thigh.

Putting his good kunai back into his left hip-pouch, his right hand reached for the pouch on his hip and seized five of his older kunai – he didn't want to destroy the ones, that had been a gift from Itachi. With his left hand he grabbed the same amount of explosive-tags and tied them to the kunai with some ninja-wire. The whole process took about five seconds.

The bandits, that were stationed on the east side of the camp were just grabbing their weapons and moving onto Hayate's and Koji's position, when Naruto's kunai landed around them. The young blond observed with morbid fascination, how the left leg of a brutish looking bandit, was torn from his body in a gory show of violence. His other tags didn't do much more than cause concussion and strew chaos.

Naruto's attention was then taken from the howling man with only one leg and turned onto the giant wall of flames, descending onto the tent in the middle of the camp. Mere thirty seconds had passed, since his first kill. He had another minute before he would've to put out the fire. Reaching for two of his leather-hilted kunai, he took them in reverse-grip and charged into the fray.

Naruto's first victim didn't even realize that he was there. Using his smaller frame to his advantage this time, Naruto easily cut into the bandit's left leg, shredding muscle, tendons and most importantly his femoral artery. Another shower of blood painted the clearing's ground.

The bleeding bandit cried out in pain, drawing the others attention towards him and by proxy, Naruto. The first bandit to react, was tall and slender, the first signs of facial hair on his visage. The young blond however, felt detached, as if he was a mere bystander. He noticed the gleaming light on the katana, the gangly youth was lifting over his head with both hands, while charging. 'An overhead strike, sloppy' Naruto observed.

For the blond ninja, everything seemed to be in slow motion. He noticed the most inconsequential details. How the air looked to be shimmering, as the thin morning-mist was illuminated by the rising sun. He could still hear the moaning from the previously cut down bandit, but the sound seemed so, so far away. Carnage was all around him, but Naruto's eyes only saw the young man charging towards him.

Unknown to the blond, the battle fever had gripped him. The state, one only reaches, when spilling his enemies' blood. The state, that had made men and women roar in triumph for millennia, when slaughtering other humans.

Suddenly, the bandit was right in front of Naruto. He dropped the kunai from his left hand and moved towards the new threat, bending his knees a little and launching his own attack. Before his opponent had a chance to react, Naruto's left arm had crept from under the bandit's own left arm towards his shoulder. Mid-air, the young blonde grabbed onto his enemy's shoulder. Letting his momentum carry him past the bandit, he used his arm as leverage and swung onto his assailant's back, embedding the kunai from his right hand deep into nape of the bandit's neck.

Naruto's weight wasn't enough to change the bandit's own momentum. He crashed face first into the ground rather violently, Naruto's knees pressed into his newest victim's back only for a moment, before he rolled away once again.

-xXx-

Naruto sat on a random piece of wood in the remains of the bandit camp, surrounded by corpses. Koji had started burying them with some Doton Jutsu, after having taken care of Naruto. 'A useful jutsu to learn', Naruto mused, his emotionless eyes darting around the camp, desperately looking for something to distract him from his own thoughts.

Hayate and Emiko were sorting through the stuff, that had been stored in the tent. Naruto had wanted to help, but Hayate had simply pointed to his left arm, which had sported a nasty burn. Naruto couldn't feel any pain coming from it, but he remembered what had caused the burn in the first place.

After he had joined the battle in earnest and killed three more men in quick succession, most of the bandits had decided to run away and Naruto had moved on to safe the burning tent, or rather its goods. While using his _Suiton: Mizurappa no Jutsu_ (Water Style: Trumpet Technique) on the tent, one of its former inhabitants had decided to hinder him rather drastically. Choosing between having their stolen merchandise fall in to their enemy's hand or the wares being burned, he picked the latter.

Before long, Naruto had had a _Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu_ (Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique) coming at him, proving, that there was at least one former ninja with the bandits. Since the fireball had been rather small, being only about one foot in diameter, the ninja had probably barley been above genin level. However, due to the close proximity, and Naruto's attention being on the formerly burning tent, he couldn't dodge the whole thing in time.

Fortunately, the flames were as good as put out, when Naruto had been forced to dodge and thus stop his jutsu, with only some tiny flames still licking on the tarp. Out of the corner of his eyes, Naruto had then witnessed his attackers demise, curtsey of Hayate's katana. Soon thereafter, the sounds of battle had diminished and Koji had taken care of his burn.

"Hey Naruto, you alright?" Naruto turned towards the voice, and saw Hayate coming towards him.

"Yeah, I'm fine, space out a little just now," came his reply.

"First kill, huh? Well, at least it was clean. I know someone who got her first kill by burning half the body to a crisp," Hayate said with a wink, his eyes darting over to Emiko, "but that's not exactly what you want to hear right now, I guess. Listen, there isn't much one can say to make it better. It's part of the job and in time, you'll do it again. As long as you don't enjoy it and it weighs on your conscience, everything is alright, because it means you're still human. While it never gets easier, you get accustomed to it. I also came over to tell you, that you did a great job Naruto. I expected you to freeze up, to be honest."

"Thanks, Hayate," Naruto said with a somewhat strained smile.

"No worries, that's what I'm here for. Now, I heard you like to dabble in fūinjutsu, are you able to draw storage seals? We didn't bring enough scrolls I'm afraid."

"I'm afraid not. I'm only halfway through level three and storage seals come later, as far as I know."

"Ah I see, you're doing it the hard way. I tried it at the start, but it was too time consuming for me. I only pick up random seals and learn how to make them, without learning the technicalities behind them. Level three at nine years old is quite the accomplishment however, I'm sure you'll get there in time. If you don't mind helping Emiko store all the stuff while I draw some more seals, that would be great. If we make haste, we'll be back in the village by night."

"Sure thing, I could use something to distract me a little," Naruto said, this time with a real smile.

-xXx-

 _20\. March 1299, late evening_

"So, everything went well?", Hiruzen asked.

"He did admirably. Naruto integrated himself into our team quite well and had no problem to keep up with our pace. His execution was flawless, although he joined the fight a little delayed. Had it not been his first kill, it wouldn't have happened."

"That's good to hear. It opens up more mission options for him. Very well, you can turn in your written report tomorrow, go get some sleep Hayate-kun," the Hokage said.

"Hai Hokage-sama, thank you," Hayate replied and turned around to leave the office. The office remained silent for a few moments, before Hiruzen said,

"ANBU, leave me." Four shadows darted out of the office, before the Hokage opened his mouth again.

"So, are you going to sit there all night or are you going to tell me what you want?", he asked the empty office. A rustle of clothes could be heard from the window, before a ninja in jōnin garb with silver, gravity-defying hair and a face mask jumped through it.

"My apologies Hokage-sama, I couldn't help but listen in when I jumped by," Kakashi said.

"Well, you'd better apologies again Kakashi-kun, this time for lying to me. You didn't just jump by. If I had to guess, I'd say, that you followed Hayate here form the gates," the Hokage said, smirking a little. Kakashi scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, before sitting down on the chair in front of Hiruzen's desk, his face turning serious.

"I know what you're doing Hokage-sama."

"Oh, and what would that me Kakashi-kun?", Hiruzen asked, his eyes gleaming in amusement.

"You didn't pair Naruto with Hayate's team on accident. Hayate won't go to his apartment tonight. He will go to his girlfriend's, who just so happens to have been taught kenjutsu by Kushina. Their conversation will turn onto Naruto and how well he did on the mission. Then, Yūgao, who is very well aware of Naruto's identity and was part of his ANBU protection detail, will mention, that he would fill Anko's soon-to-be-empty spot quite well.

"You and I both know that Yūgao has a soft spot for Naruto and wants to see him succeed. She was the one to comfort him, when he had nightmares. While Naruto probably doesn't remember it, he knows 'Neko-neechan' just as well as 'Inu-niisan'," Kakashi finished his narration.

"My my, to have this all planned, it would be quite insidious, wouldn't you say? And what empty spot are you talking about? Anko is still very much part of team Hayate, Kakashi-kun."

"Sure," Kakashi said rolling his eyes, "It's almost public knowledge that Ibiki pushes for Anko to be assigned to T&I full time. From what I've heard, Anko isn't averse to the idea. If I didn't know, that I would hurt Naruto by doing so, I would bet my entire icha-icha collection on Anko being transferred to T&I full time within a week, now that you put Naruto into Hayate's mind."

"And why would you hurt Naruto by betting your collection?"

"Because, it's also almost public knowledge, that you're a closet pervert," Kakashi said and belatedly added, "Hokage-sama. You would probably push the transfer out for a week, only to win the bet."

"Ahh, I think it's time for you to leave, Kakashi kun," the Hokage said, smiling a little too sweetly. Hiruzen had rarely seen a faster shunshin.

* * *

 _Ninja – A how-to, Chapter 3 Chakra introductions_

It is without doubt, that chakra is the most important component when it comes to the battle prowess of ninja. To execute any technique on a high level a certain competence when it comes to chakra control and manipulation is required, no matter which shinobi art the technique stems from.

As any other book will tell you, chakra is in its basis the combination of physical and spiritual energies. While the physical part is quite obvious the spiritual is not. It has been long debated what is contained within the term 'spiritual'. It is my opinion that it contains everything that is actually non-physical. While it sounds somewhat self-explanatory it is a rather complicated topic. Many theories disregard willpower, mental strength, emotions, even imagination and creativity amongst other things from the spiritual part of chakra. I heavily disagree.

Chakra is the manifestation of everything the caster is in the moment he releases the chakra. For example, our imagination is just as much part of us as anything else and I theorize that it is a major part when it comes to shape manipulation, which will be discussed in a later chapter.

Killer-intent is a projection of our emotions via chakra. There are also examples of sensors being able to pick up on the emotions of the people around them.

It is important that every ninja understands that chakra is a double-edged sword. It is our own chakra that allows genjutsu to fool our senses as much as it is chakra that allows us to do unimaginable things. To hone this weapon to perfection shall be your greatest achievement. To perfectly control and shape the very manifestation of yourself in this world.

* * *

A.N. Once more I got lots of stuff to say... I guess first, at the end of the note there's another little remark, that concerns something about Naruto's future. I mentioned in my first chapter, that I don't like reading fanficitons which suddenly take a weird turn and want to warn you, if you feel the same way. It could be considered a spoiler, but only very minor. So if you don't want to know anything about it, just skip the very last part.

New jutsu:

 _Suiton: Mizurappa no Jutsu_ (Water Style: Trumpet Technique): Should've been in the last chapter, but oh well... The user launches a large jet of water from their mouth through their hand. This gives the appearance of playing a trumpet, hence the name. (Same function, handsigns and romanisation as Water Release: Wild Water Wave) C-rank

 _Fūton: Reppūsh_ _ō no Jutsu_ (Wind Style: Gale Palm Technique): A simple technique whereby when the user clasps their hands together, wind is compressed and transformed into a powerful gale. This technique, when used as an isolated attack, has the power to easily knock over a human. Though the true value comes from using it together with projectile weapons like shuriekn or kunai. Their speed, power, and ability to wound or even kill are all increased several times. C-rank.

 _Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku_ (Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation): Chakra kneaded inside the body is converted into fire, and then expelled from the mouth and shaped into a massive fireball, which covers a wide range as well. This makes the technique extremely difficult to either avoid or contain, with it requiring the combined efforts of several Water release users in order to extinguish the flames. S-rank (according to canon/wiki, this jutsu is B-rank, plus it's technically a 'Uchiha-only' jutsu. But it's way too fucking awesome, so instead, here it's s-rank...)

Concerning travel-time: I found practically no mention on how long it takes to travel the elemental nations and it's never conclusive. So here's what happens in this story. Marathon world-record is run at approximatley 13 mph. In this story ninja are able to run 15 mph for ~10h a day. Yeah it's insane and what not, but hey, fuck it. Therefore the distance from Konoha to fire/iron border is about 170 miles (~273 km)

I hope you all enjoyed the first little fighting-scene, feedback is appreciated. I wrote a little bit about what Naruto experienced and there will be another talk about it in the next chapter. I got the inspiration for this from one of my favourite authors, Bernard Cornwell. If you enjoy historical fiction (OC's acting in known historic events) you should check him out, his narration of battles is amazing, especially in the saxon series.

Before replying to reviews, I wanted to share my thoughts about another character, Gai.

I always felt like he's way to single-tracked in canon, but shows some deep insight from time to time. His overexuberant behaviour is for me something he does to deal with all his shit, which is even shown in canon, when he's a young boy being 'bullied'. His father puts up this oblivious act and he copies it. I read one fanfiction, where even his clothing is only something of a facade. If I remember correctly, Kakashi pranked Gai into wearing spandex, by saying it's made for taijutsu because it's stream-lined and more aerodynamic or some shit like that. I like to think that Gai puts up with it, because he's the 'good' guy and if he can make Kakashi smile by wearing that green monstrosity, he does it.

Reviews:

ReddFoxx: Thanks again for mentioning the date thing. Everything else should be cleared up (edite A.N. in chap.3)

Slimr3: No, he won't be genin until he's twelve, that would defeat the whole purpose of Naruto's early graduation. While you're correct about Konoha's politics, some, especially Danzo, don't want Naruto in the 'normal' forces, but in Root. If Naruto was to be desperate enough for advancement, Danzo could sweep in and take him under his wing. And nothing is ever as simple as 'I'm the dude with the hat, do what I say'. The Hokage is voted in by the council and without backing, a Hokage's rain would probably be rather short. While I don't know if it's possible to go for something like a vote of no confidence, assassination are apparently a thing in the Naruto-verse... :)

ethanfigueroa2929: Tried to make this chapter a little more interactive, rather than descriptive. Actually rewrote quite a large part, hope you like it better :) I have no idea what I'll do with Hinata, maybe she dies, maybe she doesn't. Naruto won't have much influence on her.

To the timline: In the next chapter there's a short narration on the events in Kiri (since I'll need it later). In order to make sense of everything, Zabuza is two years younger than in canon (changed the timeline in chap. 1 as well.). Another little change is, that instead of Kakashi being apprenticed by a **15** year old Minato, he's simply with a different team for two years.

Mini-Spoiler Alert! I know, that many of you like Naruto with blonde hair and whiskers. During the course of this story, Naruto will turn into a readhead without whiskers. The process and why it happens will be explained, I even plan to justify it by writing a huge block on cytology. However, it's very far in the future, never the less, those who don't like a readhed Naruto, should be aware of this.  
/Mini-Spoiler Alert!


	5. Interlude

Thanks for all the reviews! Actually planned to move forward a lot more with this chapter, but it ended up at around 12k words, so I decided to split it. This is more of an interlude, for a few social interactions... Next chapter will be action again. As usual A.N. at the end.

* * *

 _What happened last time_

 _"Because, it's also almost public knowledge, that you're a closet pervert," Kakashi said, and belatedly added, "Hokage-sama." After another short pause, he continued, "You would probably push the transfer out for a week, only to win the bet."_

 _"Ahh, I think it's time for you to leave, Kakashi-kun," the Hokage said, smiling a little too sweetly. Hiruzen had rarely seen a faster shunshin._

* * *

Chapter 5

 _22\. March 1299_

Naruto was woken by loud knocking at 7.45 a.m. The previous day had been a Sunday and Naruto had spent it relaxing, trying to recuperate from his latest mission and subsequent first kill. Rubbing the last remnants of sleep from his eyes, Naruto got up and opened the door.

"Good morning Naruto-kun! Hokage-sama told me, that you returned from your mission two days ago, but you missed our training."

"Huh? Oh, morning Gai-sensei. Yeah, didn't feel like training today. Gomen, I should've told you."

"Don't worry Naruto. Would you mind if I come in? I'd like to talk to you."

Naruto was a little surprised, but stepped aside and gestured towards the couch.

"Please, sit down. Do you want tea, breakfast?"

"Yes, thank you," it seemed as if Gai's usual exuberance vanished, when he entered the apartment.

Naruto made himself busy in the adjacent kitchen, while Gai looked around the living-/dining room. Since Naruto generally didn't have time to waste in the morning, he kept enough pre-cooked rice in the fridge, to last two or three days. Ten minutes later, he placed the bowls with his usual breakfast on the low coffee table; rice, fermented soybeans, fried eggs and tea.

"So, what did you want to talk about sensei?" Naruto asked between bites.

Before answering, Gai set his bowl of rice down, placed his chopsticks on top of it and interlaced his fingers.

"I want to talk about the reason of your absence," he said seriously.

"There's no particular reason, I just didn't feel like it."

"Naruto-kun, in the last four months that I've trained you, you didn't miss a single day of training, when you weren't outside the village. You even came right before you left the village quite often. Something troubles you and I want to know what."

"It's nothing important sensei, I'll be there tomorrow, promise," Naruto said, trying to deflect the unasked question. Gai sighed before speaking again.

"Naruto, I think it's important for you to know, that when I decided to train you, it wasn't just a spur of the moment thing. You have to understand, that you're important to this village and not just in your position as jinchūriki. While early graduates aren't that uncommon, it's usually after their third or fourth year. Becoming genin after only one year at the academy, draws attention. Pretty much every chūnin and j _ō_ nin knows exactly who you are, now more so than ever. Having young, strong ninja sets an example to others your age, of what can be achieved with hard work. It shows our clients and the other villages, that our next generation will be as deadly as the one before.

"Admittedly you weren't exactly the inconspicuous person before, due to your pranks, but they lessened notably when you started at the academy. When you approached me outside that dango restaurant, I knew exactly why you were there. One doesn't graduate as an eight year old by being stupid and collecting wrong information," Gai explained.

"You knew from the start, that I actually wanted you to train me?" Naruto asked incredulous.

"Of course I knew. You don't become jōnin by being an idiot either. There's a subtle difference between being intelligent and being good academically. Besides, there's this whole common sense thingy," he chuckled a bit.

"So why didn't you call me out on my bull shit? And why would you train me, when you knew that I was lying to your face?"

"Because, as I said, you're important to this village. And being cunning isn't a bad trait for a ninja. You were desperate and did what you had to, no one can blame you for that. Five minutes after you accepted my offer, I went to Hokage-sama to inform him about our arrangement. You have to understand, that there's a lot of things going on behind your back, that concern you. It would do absolutely no good, to have a jinchūriki training completely unsupervised, especially one, that has very few bonds to the village."

"So, you only did it, because it was for the good of the village?" Naruto asked a little hurt.

"No, of course not," Gai replied instantly, shaking his head. "I wanted to see, what you're made of. I heard that Itachi had a hand in your training and I was curious. You heard about Kakashi, yes?" Naruto simply nodded and his sensei continued. "He has a saying, that is very true for us ninja. 'One has to look underneath the underneath'. Nothing is ever as it seems. There're very few jōnin, that believe what's said about Itachi, but what we believe doesn't matter. He was declared a traitor to the village and as such has to be exterminated. Our feelings and believes have no say in the matter.

"Being trained by one of the most talented shinobi to ever come out of Konoha, was for me a sign, that you obviously had talent as well. A talent I wanted to further and bring out."

"I see… So, what exactly are you trying to say with all that?"

"Being your sensei means more to me, than simply train you in taijutsu. I'm here to support you, to help you along, to sort off smoothen your path. Your actions directly reflect on me. Your failures will be partly laid at my feet and in exchange I get a share in the glory you will one day reap. I will be known as the sensei of a Hokage," Gai said with a wink and Naruto smiled brightly. "It was me who told the Hokage, that you were ready for this mission. If I hadn't done that, you would've never be assigned a B-rank.

"So, why don't you tell me what's troubling you? I know it has something to do with your last mission, but I don't think it's about your first kill, is it?"

"No… Well, yes. Sort off." Naruto paused before he said in a whisper, "I liked it."

"You mean killing?" Gai asked, his voice even.

"No, I don't think so," the young ninja said and furrowed his brow, starring at the bowl in his hands. "I believe it was more the battle itself. It was… exhilarating beyond believe," he said and looked up at his sensei. "The fighting itself, knowing, that a mistake could mean your death… I've never felt so alive. Seeing your enemy, and suddenly knowing what he's going to do, before he knows it himself. The knowledge, that you hold his life in your hands. It was intoxicating, I had to stop myself from running after them," Naruto finished, his voice growing steadily quieter.

"I see… And what about all that has you so troubled?" Gai asked softly. Naruto expression turned quizzical before answering.

"I shouldn't feel that way! I feel dirty even thinking about it. And I'm afraid, that I won't be able to stop one day."

"Well, don't be afraid then. You're not the only one with those feelings Naruto-kun. It might not be the best example, but Madara Uchiha was well known for his thirst for battle. Many great ninja had it. Tobirama Senju had it, Sandaime-sama has it, Kakashi has it. I myself enjoy a good fight and many others do so as well. Even Shodaime-sama was said to relish in a decent battle, even though he dedicated most of his life to bringing peace. It might be possible that your… condition enhances those feelings, but they're nothing to be ashamed of or worried about.

"There're two types of fighters, Naruto-kun. Those who go into battle with trepidation, only thinking about their survival and those, that go into battle with a smile on their face, wishing for a strong opponent and let loose. The former never become truly great ninja."

"But I never felt that way before. Even when Hana and I really get into it and our spars turn vicious," Naruto exclaimed.

"Well, that's simple biology. Even though your fights may be hard fought, both of you know unconsciously, that there's no real danger. All the hormones – especially adrenaline – you release when fighting for your life, make those feelings possible in the first place."

"I see," Naruto concurred. "Thanks sensei, that helped a lot."

"That's what I'm here for Naruto-kun. Now that your head is set straight, I'll be on my way. Breakfast was delicious and I expect you tomorrow for training," Gai said, suddenly turning brighter again.

"Hai, sensei. I'll be there."

 _26\. March 1299_

Friday evening, Naruto strolled down the streets of Konoha towards the barbeque place, he frequented with Shikamaru and Chōji. He wanted to celebrate his first successful B-rank mission with his friends and had invited them out. Entering the restaurant, Naruto saw Shikamaru and Chōji already seated and went over to them.

"Hey guys, you're early," he greeted his friends and sat down.

"Hello Naruto. Yeah, Shikamaru was too lazy to go home after school only to walk back to the restaurant, so we decided to wait here for you. He's been napping ever since," Chōji explained.

"And you've been snacking, I guess," Naruto replied chuckling. The rather chubby boy smiled and scratched the back of his head sheepishly, before elbowing the sleeping Shikamaru in the side. The dark-haired boy didn't so much as look up, but only lifted his arm and waved towards Naruto with a lazy 'Hey Naruto.'

Chōji and Naruto chuckled at their friends' antics and waved over a waitress in order for them to order. Even though constantly grilling meat and only eating from small bites, there was only little small talk. It was usual for Chōji not to talk much while eating, but today it wasn't because he was too focused on his meal. In fact, both him and Shikamaru seemed rather distracted. The blond ninja guessed, that they had a stressful week.

"Sooo, anything happened at the academy? You guys seem somewhat not your usual selves…"

Shikamaru looked up from his meal and muttered, "Emotional conditioning."

"Huh? What does that mean?" Naruto asked.

"Well, we told you how every second-year student was given a baby rabbit to take home about three months ago, yes?" Chōji asked, and only continued when Naruto nodded in confirmation. "The task was to care for him and stuff. They talked it up as a preparation for protection missions or something like that. We were asked to bring the rabbit back into class yesterday and then were told to kill it…"

"Huh… I see how that can kill your appetite. Do you know whether there will be more of that sort of thing?"

"No idea," Shikamaru answered this time, "but since we're only in our second year, I guess we'll have to do something of that sort every other year. You seem rather unfazed by it though."

"Yeah, might've helped to have done something like that before my latest mission."

"What? Oh right, we were actually here to celebrate something. You never told us what exactly."

"Sorry, I was a little in a hurry when I met you at the academy," Naruto admitted sheepishly. "Well, last Saturday I returned from my first B-rank, successful and all," Naruto smiled.

"Wow, congratulations Naruto," the two boys chorused. "B-rank huh? What was the objective?" Shikamaru added.

"Bandit extermination," was the curt answer. Both Naruto's friends looked at him a little strange, before Shikamaru acquiesced, "I see how some emotional training could've helped you there. It's actually strange, that it isn't done for early graduates in their first few months as genin. So, did you actually… you know?" He asked with a slight grimace.

"Yeah, didn't have much of a choice. I've been pretty much told, that I was assigned to this mission, so that I could get it over with. I have no idea why the emotional condition thing isn't just part of the genin-exam. I mean, in hindsight being able to go through with it and not freeze is kind of important," Naruto explained.

"Well, that's great and all, but it doesn't feel like we're celebrating. Naruto, aren't you allowed to buy alcohol? I remember Iruka-sensei telling us, that ninja are allowed to drink."

"You want to get drunk?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No! Just a cup, to, you know, try it. And maybe it gets rid of this depressing mood." Chōji tried to explain. Naruto just grinned and waved over the waitress. A minute later all three had a little cup of sake in front of them. Glancing at each other, they lifted the cups in a silent salute. Shikamaru spit half the liquid out again, while Chōji and Naruto started choking, all three grimaced.

"Well, that was disgusting." Shikamaru summarized their experience laughing. His two friends simply grinned.

"You know, I was wondering, how are the two Uchihas doing? It's almost been a year since the… _incident_." Naruto asked, after a few moments.

"Where does that sudden interest come from?" Shikamaru asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm just curious about how they're faring, I guess."

"Well, Sasuke has been his usual stuck up self," Chōji said unusually blunt. "He's been broody ever since the massacre and socializes even less than before. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts killing his fangirls sooner or later."

"Wow Chōji, you sure that isn't the sake talking?" Naruto said laughing. Chōji didn't even deign to answer and turned his attention back to the sizzling meat.

"Izumi is hiding something," Shikamaru said quietly. "She doesn't sit with Sasuke anymore, but with Hinata."

"You mean the Hyūga heiress, right? The quiet one, always seemed a little weird."

"She's nice when you get to know her," Chōji interjected between bites.

"Yeah that's the one," Shikamaru replied, ignoring Chōji for the moment. "First I thought Izumi was just fed up with Ino and Sakura worshipping the very ground Sasuke walked on and their whining when Izumi already sat beside her brother in the academy. Sakura was even worse and tried to butter up with Izumi too, probably thinking she could get to Sasuke through her or something. But now I think she's hiding something and wants to simply distance herself from Sasuke."

"What do you mean 'she's hiding something'?" Naruto asked, looking quizzical.

"Well, in our first year she was always up there with the best in our class ranking. While she's still in the top third now, something's wrong. Whenever she's asked something in class, she knows it, but on tests she only scores like 70-80%. When we're on the throwing-range, I think she misses on purpose. Like, she hits seven out of ten bullseyes and the other three go wide. If she's trying to play down her abilities, she's doing it rather badly though, it's kind of obvious."

"Obvious for you maybe Shika," Chōji said, "I didn't really notice."

"I wonder why she would do it though," Naruto interjected with a furrowed brow. "And why is she sitting with Hinata?"

"No idea why she would want to hide her abilities. Hinata is a lot less nervous, since she's sitting with Izumi, but only when we're in school. Outside she's still super shy, dunno what that's all about. Izumi is probably just sitting with her, because Hinata takes being a kunoichi more serious than the rest of the girls in our class. You should've seen them when we had to kill that rabbit, their wailing was almost worse than the killing itself," Shikamaru answered, shaking his head.

Naruto snorted. He barely remembered the girls form his class, but what had stayed with him was their obnoxious need to impress Sasuke.

"But weren't there like two or three other girls that were actually serious?" Naruto asked.

"Well, I don't know whether they take being a kunoichi serious, but there are three girls who keep away from all the fangirls and sweep the floor with them in spars."

"Haruka, Mai and Naomi," Chōji interjected again, earning him surprised looks. The boy noticed the prolonging silence and looked at his friends, only then noticing their staring. "What? I like to know who I'm in class with," he said defiantly.

"The more you know…" Shikamaru mumbled.

The rest of the evening the three went back to their usual banter. Naruto took care of the bill, he had invited them after all and B-rank missions payed rather well. He fell asleep that night with a content sigh.

-xXx-

 _28\. March 1299_

Naruto was having his well-deserved Sunday dinner at Ichiraku's and was chatting with Ayame, while destroying his fifth bowl of ramen.

His ji-san had been quite proud of him, when Naruto had shown him, that he had mastered the first step of water manipulation. Hiruzen had shown him the next exercise for mastering his element and Naruto thought it simply impossible. He had to change the direction, in which a body of a water flowed. The exercise was considered mastered when he could force whole rivers to make a bend. Naruto had tried it with a tiny creek, barely a foot wide, but he seemed to be unable to force any change.

As Naruto was about to order his next bowl, he was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Hey Naruto! You're quite difficult to find, I was looking for you for half the day."

Naruto looked over his shoulder and saw Hayate entering the ramen stand.

"Hayate, good to see you. Yeah, sorry. Old pranking habits, you know, can't be seen and all that" he said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"No worries. But speaking about pranks, it has been quite some time or am I just missing them?"

"You're right! Ever since becoming genin I neglected my one true talent! Well, I got to remedy that soon, can't have people become too lax. Maybe the ANBU are up for a good chase, it's been too long," Naruto replied, with a thoughtful look.

"I have it on good authority, that the ANBU are not too upset with not having to chase you around the village anymore," Hayate explained laughing. "Although it was always amusing to watch, I have to admit."

"Hmm, maybe something small. I had a D-rank a few weeks ago, and the client didn't want me painting his fence. Argued for an hour with me about sending another ninja. The old codger would make a good target. Maybe I should paint his fence pink or something."

"Sounds like a plan," Hayate said chuckling. "But I didn't come looking for you to talk about pranks, as amusing as it is."

"Didn't think so," Naruto replied, while viciously attacking his next bowl of ramen. "So, why did you look for me?"

"A spot has just opened on our team. Anko was finally transferred to T&I fulltime, she'll only be going on recon missions from now on and only with teams from T&I. You did a good job on our last mission and I thought I would offer you the spot on a trial basis."

"You for real?", Naruto exclaimed with gleaming eyes, his ramen forgotten for once. "That would be awesome, no more reserve corps and a chūnin team too!"

"Yeah, I am for real," Hayate said, laughing again. "As I said, it's on a trial basis, since we've only been on one mission, but both Koji and Emiko agreed to give you a chance. Just meet up with us tomorrow for training, and we'll look over it, alright?"

"Sure thing, when and where?"

"We usually meet at 8 a.m. at training ground 42. It's the one close to training ground 44, Anko loves that place, so we picked something in the proximity. Our normal schedule is three hours of team exercises; formations, collaboration attacks and stuff like that. Afterwards we spar for an hour, or help each other with projects. We often get lunch together and in the afternoon, everyone does what he wants."

"Sounds perfect, I'll be there," Naruto said. 'I got to switch up my schedule with Gai-sensei, I hope we can fix something', he thought.

"Good, I'll see you tomorrow then, enjoy your ramen!"

"Thanks Hayate, see you tomorrow!"

"Oh, and since you're on the team now, you can call me Taichō," Hayate said, while leaving Ichiraku's.

Naruto turned his attention back to his ramen in high spirits. Finally, a real team. It may make participating in chūnin-exams even more difficult, but at least he would get more experience. He would get his promotion some way or another.

"So Naruto-kun, it seems you made good impression on them on your mission," Ayame said, from behind the counter. "You seem awfully chipper, even more so than usual, is it really such a big deal to be on a fix team?"

"Of course, Ayame-neechan. There're lots of advantages, when being on a fix team. For one, I'm part of the active corps, which means I get a base income," Naruto explained.

"Huh, I thought you ninjas get your salary from missions?"

"Nu-huh. Missions are like a bonus. Or maybe it's the other way 'round, since as a genin I can barely live from the base income. Every rank has different income, you see. ANBU get the most, since they don't receive payment for missions and it's based on how long you've been in ANBU. The base income is actually very important, if you're injured at one point or when you retire. You're only paid 80% of your income, 8% go into your so called 'old-age provision' and another 12% go into a collective fund, that supports injured shinobi.

"I mean, think about it, you would be screwed as shinobi, if you were injured and didn't have any income besides missions. Fortunately, the village covers all health bills, for hospitalized shinobi, so at least that's something you wouldn't have to worry about," Naruto continued his explanation.

"I honestly never thought about it, but it makes sense," Ayame said with a frown on her face. "But what happens, when a reserve corps shinobi is injured?"

"Well, then you are screwed. While your hospital bills are still covered, you lack income. That's why it's so important to pass the test set by your jōnin-sensei. Less than half the genin who fail their test, advance in rank or make it out of the reserve corps. You either work your ass off and make it work, or you get a civilian job and withdraw your shinobi license completely," Naruto explained.

"But why would you withdraw your license? I mean, you could always work on the side and hope for a chance to get out of it."

"Yeah, but while shinobi in the reserve corps are allowed to decline missions, they're still obligated to fight in case of war. Not training due to a civilian job makes you cannon fodder in war times. Most reserve corps shinobi are in there, because they don't want to constantly take missions. Take the Clan heads as an example. They're still very capable shinobi, but have too many obligations, to leave the village on a regular basis."

"Well, that was interesting. What else do you get from being in the active corps?" Ayame asked.

"There're lots of other things. Like having regular missions, being able to train with a team and all that sort of stuff."

"Well, good for you Naruto-kun, you deserve it," Ayame said with a smile.

"Thanks, nee-chan, but I got to go. I should get a good night's sleep, before my first trainings-session and I'll have to check with Gai-sensei, whether we can change up our schedule or not," Naruto replied, while dropping some money on the counter and getting up from his chair.

"Alright, good night Naruto-kun."

"Bye, Ayame-nee, tell Teuchi good night form me" Naruto exclaimed, idly waving his hand over his shoulder, exiting the ramen stand.

-xXx-

 _29\. April 1299_

Naruto smiled unconsciously while slurping his noodle-soup. If it wasn't for the – according to him – 'Food of the Gods', he would probably be talking just as much as Emiko. Team Hayate was currently having dinner at Ichiraku's, celebrating Naruto's permanent admission to said team. During the one month trial period, the young ninja integrated himself quite well.

Naruto's position in Team Hayate was somewhat similar to Hayate's. His huge chakra reserves made him into a nin-jutsu power house, while his smaller frame and speed made for an elusive fighter, who still packed a punch. Not to mention his stealth skills were some of the best ever seen in a nine-year-old. The young blond was turning out to be an all-around type shinobi and he had already decided to pick up kenjutsu, as soon as he was done with the second step of water manipulation.

Of his team, Naruto was probably closest to Emiko. The teenager had kind off adopted Naruto as a younger brother. She had taken a liking to pranks after Naruto told her about the one time he had sneaked into ANBU HQ and painted large parts of the underground facility orange. More often than not, lunch was spent making plans for their next prank, after Naruto decided to go back into pranking-business. Hayate kept out of it for the most part, according to Emiko, it was under threat of his girlfriend. Koji however surprised them all. It seemed the young man had a hidden sadistic streak and offered to get them some rather humiliating neuro-toxins for their pranks. Needless to say, that they kept him far away from their plans.

There had also been a short discussion about Naruto's tenant. The young blond figured that his teammates probably knew anyway and wanted to be able to trust them with everything. Surprisingly none of them showed a negative reaction. Hayate had studied seals and had informed his teammates about the nature of a jinchūriki even before they had been on their first B-rank. While both Emiko and Koji had lost loved ones during the kyūbi-incident, they knew where to lay the blame and it certainly wasn't Naruto.

-xXx _-_

 _30\. April 1299_

Naruto was working through one of his katas when Gai suddenly interrupted him.

"Naruto-kun, we've got company!" Next to Gai stood a kunoichi with purple hair, wearing ANBU gear and a katana on her back. Naruto looked at the kunoichi a little quizzically, there was something familiar about her.

"Naruto Yūgao-chan wants to talk to you," Gai explained.

"Morning Naruto-kun, sorry to interrupt your training. Hayate-kun told me where I could find you, I wanted to talk to you. How about breakfast?"

The young boy was little perplexed, not knowing what exactly this was about. He didn't want to be rude though, so he asked, "You're Hayate's girlfriend, right?" receiving a nod in return he continued, "Alright, I know a place." Naruto then turned towards his sensei, "What about you Gai-sensei, want to tag along?"

"It's alright Naruto-kun, go ahead. I'll have my breakfast here, as usual," Gai replied with a gentle smile.

Naruto nodded and fell in step with Yūgao walking towards the village. He inhaled the crisp morning air deeply through his nose, before his face crunched up in confusion and then turned towards the purple haired kunoichi. "Neko-neechan?!"

"Hai, Naruto-kun. It's been a while, ne?" Yūgao answered smiling. Suddenly a lot of things fell into place for Naruto and his eyes widened.

"That manipulative old man. I'll have to thank him later," he grumbled more to himself, Yūgao however heard him clearly.

"Hmm, what are you talking about?"

"Hokage-jiji. He used you and Hayate to get me onto a team," Naruto explained. Yūgao stood still for a moment before starting to laugh.

"I can't believe I didn't see it before. He played us well. And some of the higher ranks were starting to doubt his capability as Hokage," she said still chuckling and shaking her head. "He could obliterate them both in body and mind…"

-xXx-

"So, what did you want to talk about nee-chan?" Naruto asked between bites.

"Hayate-kun told me you had a water affinity and I wondered if you needed any help."

"Yeah, that would be awesome! I'm on the second step, but it's super annoying," Naruto said a little downcast.

"Don't worry gaki, I can make some time here and there to give you some pointers. It's the least I can do," Yūgao said, smiling softly. Naruto looked at her a strangely, trying to figure out why she'd owe him. He shoved the thought into the back of his mind for later.

"You know Naruto, I was wondering. How are you being treated nowadays?" Yūgao asked quietly.

"It's weird… I don't spend much time in the village to be honest. Well it's kind of difficult to explain. Two years ago, I did everything I could to get their attention, you know, the clothes, the pranks and stuff."

"Yeah, I heard some ANBU talking about submitting a motion to split your team. Everyone was happy when the pranks lessened and now you got Emiko-chan helping you," Yūgao said wistfully.

"You do realise, that there's no point in trying to hide that you're in ANBU by talking about them as if you're not part of it, right?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Hai," Yūgao laughed sheepishly, "force of habit I guess."

"The clothes are somewhat of a give-away," Naruto deadpanned. "But yeah, the pranks are back. Although we're really limiting ourselves to be honest. Less trying to annoy people and more for a good laugh and sometimes just to reveal security risks. I'll remember not to touch your stuff the next time we raid ANBU HQ, Neko-neechan," Naruto said with a slightly maniac grin.

"Thank kami for small favours," Yūgao muttered.

"Back to our topic though, as I said I changed quite a bit during the last two years. Instead of channelling all my energy into annoying people, I train or study. I'm rarely seen and since I'm not wearing anything bright anymore, people tend to ignore me rather than glare at me. It's easier to overlook me and pretend I'm not there I guess.

"The ninja changed too, but I only realised it after Gai-sensei told me, that graduating after only one year is kind of special. I mean, there were always fewer ninja that hated me, but the others didn't really do anything about it. I was just treated with indifference. Now they look almost as if they're respecting me, it was creepy when I first noticed," Naruto explained.

"I see. You've also become much more quiet. You stopped running around shouting about becoming Hokage, I always thought it was rather adorable." Being remember of his past behaviour made Naruto blush in embarrassment.

"Yeah, my first sensei was super quiet and I somewhat tried to emulate him, because I really looked up to him," Naruto said with sadness in his voice. "He taught me to do my physical exercises in the morning to burn as much energy as possible and it made it much easier to do other stuff that I had to sit around for."

Naruto and Yūgao spent the rest of their meal talking about water jutsu and manipulation. Since Yūgao only had little time to help him, they decided that she would simply look for him, when she actually had time. After all, she knew where to find him.

* * *

 _Ninja – A how-to, Chapter 4 Taijutsu_

In accordance with our teachings at the ninja academy I shall too cover the three main shinobi arts. The first of them being Taijutsu. It is in my opinion the most important discipline of all the shinobi arts. A ninja can lack in all other areas and still be a dangerous opponent. Its importance stems from the fact, that it does not require additional items or even hand seals. Outside of the Hyūga-clan there is no one that can shut down the inner workings of a person's chakra system, as such chakra-enhancement (which will be discussed later) is almost always possible.

Taijutsu is a foundation that is required for any competent shinobi. While it is no necessary to become proficient or even master a certain style, is important to be able to defend oneself in close quarters.

It is important to note, that no Taijutsu style is singularly better or stronger than another. Different styles cater to different ninja with different goals when it comes to their taijutsu. It can be argued that a well-known style poses a disadvantage due to accumulated experiences with that certain style. While this may be true it also means, that the style has been developed longer and more and has therefore more facets that can be concentrated on to improve by an individual ninja.

For most ninja taijutsu will become a complementary discipline to their main combat ability, whether it is ninjutsu, genjutsu, bukijutsu or even more obscure arts such as fūinjutsu. It is important to choose a taijutsu style that fits the ninja's style of combat as well as his chosen main discipline (or main disciplines). Taijutsu should complement and enhance a ninja's battle ability even if it is only used as a supplemental art.

* * *

A.N. Hope you liked it! I already found some things I'm not happy with in earlier chapters. I'll continue this, until I'm hitting a block and then start to edit a few things. Don't worry, there won't be any huge changes, just to make it easier to read and change/add a few interactions. I won't change the main storyline. After the reviews, I'll post my system concerning fuinjutsu (the levels and stuff). I made it up on rather short notice, so there might be changes coming...

Some general things on reviews: There's obviously stuff, that I handle differently than in canon. I need some changes to make the story somewhat believeable after all (for example the whole thing about who holds the power in the village). If it's such a big issue I'll just put 'AU' into the summary and be done with it...

Reviews:

Yorae Rasante: TIL... Actually interesting. I'm not sure if I ever knew that, but I guess reading fanfiction burned that whole 'deformed chakra-choils' thing into my brain... I won't change it though, I have actually something else planned with it. But thanks for mentioning :)

Timonthy B: Yugao will come up from time to time definitley, but not as a main 'confidant', so to say...

KamiKageRyuuketsu: I actually don't know, why I even bother answering. Calling some 'child' and then go on, writing like a 14 year old throwing a tantrum, makes you seem rather immature... However, there's actually an issue between all the insults, so I'll do it anyway. Of course the progress is slow. I can't just jump fast forward like other fictions do, because there's nothing canon until we reach the rookie 9 graduation. There's has to be some build-up somewhere. Escpecially since Naruto isn't acting like in canon, but a lot calmer. Concerning council and shit: How comes the Sandaime didn't do shit in canon when he had absolute power? He knew about danzo, but couldn't do anything. Being a dictator makes you still suscpetible to backstabbin. The council decided on Tsunade being Godaime. The only difference is, that in canon the council is only made up of the elders - no clan heads, no civilians. It actually states in trivia, that the council is largely responsible for the governing of the village, while the Hokage takes care of the militaristic issues.

It feels like the whole fuinjutsu thing is a gigantic mess without any structure, so I'll try to bring some into it. Incidently I'll do things a lot differently from canon and with some restrictions and stuff... Any seals that do not need to be written, are considered a speciality of the Uzumaki clan and therefore not included below. This will probably change in the future, but I want to start somewhere. :)

Fuinjutsu levels:

1\. Kanji and basic Seal-structures:  
Just basics and explanations for fuinjutsu, for example difference between seal arrays or how to actually charge seals etc...

2\. Basic inanimate Seals:  
Inanimate in the sense, that the seals are applied to non-living things, i.e. simple tags, simple seals that can be used on weapons, etc. Example: Explosive tags, seals to keep weapons sharp as long as the seal is charged, stuff like that...

3\. Basic barrie Seals

4\. Advanced inanimate Fuin  
Stronger tags, storage scrolls, elemental sealing. example: Fūka Hōin, and lots of other stuff that will come up later (like a seal that changes chakra into the desired elmental nature and stuff like that)

5\. Joint-Seals and advanced Seal-structures  
methods to combine differenct seals and advanced arrays. Example: Storage scrolls that release items at high velocity (like TenTen uses), instead of simple unseal. Explosive tags that also blind or defean enemies...

6\. Basic animate Seals:  
Seals that are applied to to others and interact directly with chakra. example: gravity seals (it's not canon, but...), chakra supression seals (like Kakashis' Evil Sealing Method), etc.

7-10: Novice, Journeyman, Adept, Master (in chosen field)

Fields (I'll probably add more later...):

Inanimate sealing (everything from weapon-advancement to chakra transformation seals)  
Animate chakra sealing (everything from biju sealing to chakra surpression seals. It simply has direct influence on someone's chakra...)  
Barrier sealing  
Space/time ninjutsu


	6. The first step

As usual there's another A.N. at the end with replies to some reviews.

LOOKING FOR BETA!

I don't own Naruto!

* * *

 _What happened last time_

 _"I see. You've also become much more quiet. You stopped running around shouting about becoming Hokage. I always thought it was rather adorable." Being reminded of his past behaviour made Naruto blush in embarrassment._

 _"Yeah, my first sensei was super quiet and I somewhat tried to emulate him, because I really looked up to him," Naruto said with sadness in his voice._

 _Naruto and Yūgao spent the rest of their meal talking about water jutsu and nature manipulation. Since Yūgao only had little time to help him, they decided that she would simply look for him, when she actually had time. After all, she knew where to find him._

* * *

 _Chapter 6_

 _6\. October 1299_

Naruto Uzumaki had never been and probably would never be the sharpest kunai in the pouch – academically speaking. There were precious few subjects he was interested in and even fewer he had a talent for. He had however more determination to reach his goals than might be good for him. This determination, coupled with a healthy dose of tutoring from one of the most brilliant shinobi, made it possible for Naruto to graduate after only one year at the academy.

His tutor, namely one Itachi Uchiha, made more than a fleeting impression on the young blond. Aside from the practical aspects that were needed for his graduation, he tried to challenge Naruto mentally and morally. The boy developed a logical thinking mind surprisingly fast, which helped him immensely. While he wasn't particularly interested in mathematics and physics, he had a talent for it. It was after all, a glorified version of problem solving and therefore perfectly suited for a logical mind.

After over one year of living as a shinobi, Naruto's opinion of the academy had plummeted even further than he thought possible. There were so many things, that the academy simply didn't cover, which were extremely important. Proper chakra theory, jutsu theory, stealth and battle tactics amongst other things. It was enough to know, that chakra was a mix of physical and spiritual energy to pass the academy. No one mentioned how chakra behaved, why good control was so important or that every persons' chakra behaved differently and therefore different affinities existed. It was up to the shinobi and kunoichi themselves to study those things after their graduation.

The problem was, that the jonin-sensei were supposed to push their genin in the right direction, to improve their knowledge. Up until his integration into team Hayate, Naruto had thought, that he was coming along nicely in both practical work and his additional studies. The sudden influx of knowledgeable shinobi around him however, showed him just how much he had missed out, when he had failed his genin-exam.

In his life, Naruto had had help from two sensei and a little from the Hokage. His first sensei had been occupied with bringing his practical skills up to snuff and pound some basic knowledge into Naruto's thick head. Maybe even more importantly, Itachi taught him what it meant to be ninja. That it wasn't as glorious as many youngsters thought it to be. That it meant to steal, to kill, to lie, to deceit. It had a rather big impact on the impressionable mind of a – then – eight-year-old. This and the general desire to emulate his first sensei had mellowed Naruto's exuberant behaviour of his younger days somewhat.

His second sensei focused most of his time on Naruto's taijutsu. Maito Gai was an active jonin and therefore didn't have the time for much else. Now however, Naruto had suddenly many people around him, trying to help him along. While everyone had their own training, his team and their immediate friends made sure, that Naruto had someone to go to with his problems. His own slightly dysfunctional family, as he liked to call them. In short, Naruto's improvement was staggering.

Both Emiko and Yūgao helped him with ninjutsu. While Yūgao was more interested and proficient in kenjutsu, she was extremely good with Suiton. It was her main affinity and more importantly, she incorporated water manipulation in her kenjutsu-style. The purple haired kunoichi had been rather surprised, that Naruto had been able to master the first step of water manipulation with very little help. It was clear to her, that Naruto had a talent for chakra manipulation. After five months working on the second step with the help from Yūgao, Naruto had the exercise almost down.

Naruto's partner in crime on the other hand, helped him along in the more scholastic aspects of ninjutsu, chakra- and ninjutsu-theory. Emiko was still working on the Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku (Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation), but her main problem was her limited chakra reserve. Hence, she had a new project, her first original jutsu. Naruto had taken interest and therefore asked Emiko to help him with the more complex theories, which she did with enthusiasm.

Of course, his other team mates helped him along as well. Naruto quickly expanded on his ninjutsu repertoire. Koji helped him with the Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu (Earth style: Hiding Like a Mole Technique) and the Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu (Earth style: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique). Two simple earth jutsu he mastered quickly. The two jutsu worked well together, the former making it possible to move underground and the latter letting you pull down enemies by their ankles.

With some pointers from Yūgao, Naruto also mastered two B-rank jutsu, the Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu (Water style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique) and the Suiton: Suijinheki (Water style: Water Formation Wall). The latter being a defensive technique creating a huge wall of water surrounding the user. Thanks to Yūgao and her help with water manipulation, Naruto was now able to use surrounding resources for his jutsu, which made him immensely proud. Naruto had still a long way until he could sap the water out of the air however.

Due to Emiko's fire affinity, Naruto took it upon himself to learn the Fūton: Daitoppa (Wind style: Great Breakthrough). In simple terms, it was a more devastating version of the Fūton: Reppūshō (Wind style: Gate Palm) and at the same time much more dangerous for the user. While the main effect of the jutsu was blunt force, the winds were also able to cut. Exhaling pretty much anything that is sharp from your lungs and mouth was never a good idea without at least some skill. Naruto got around that issue by having shadow clones kill themselves with the jutsu until they got it down and soon Emiko and Naruto started practising her fire jutsu in collaboration with Naruto's wind jutsu, but it was a rather tedious process.

After their first mission, team Hayate had assumed, that Naruto was some sort of ninjutsu prodigy. It was quite impressive for a genin of eight months and without a sensei, to have over six jutsu mastered. However, they soon found out that the blond wasn't what others would consider a prodigy. Naruto was simply stubborn, had a good work ethic and insanely large chakra reserves for someone so young and could therefore practice longer without exhausting himself.

Aside from ninjutsu, Koji took it upon himself to improve Naruto's knowledge on genjutsu and his ability to detect and break them. He also started the young blond on the environmental branch of genjutsu It came as a surprise to Naruto, that there was a whole aspect of genjutsu, that wasn't discussed in the academy. As far as he could remember, Itachi never broached the subject either. Unfortunately, Naruto had no talent for genjutsu, even for the chakra intensive ones, but he vowed to get a least proficient enough to use some of them.

Hayate had taken up the role left open in Naruto's life by Itachi's defection. The young adult was an avid reader and was interested in lots of different things. He particularly excelled in kenjutsu, strategy and history and was very passionate about the moral and philosophical sides of shinobi life. Something he found important to impart into someone as young as Naruto. In his opinion there was something inherently wrong with a not yet ten-year-old boy already slitting throats. Therefore, he tried to make time for Naruto to simply talk about everything that was on the young boy's mind. While Naruto had a talent for in-battle-tactic and could find a counter for his opponents, Hayate tried to further him also in overall strategical thinking.

Another important skill the team leader started teaching Naruto was chakra sensing. It was the learnable alternative to being a natural sensor, although never as accurate. During their life ninja developed like a sixth sense, which was sensitive to chakra. While it only had a rather short range at about 20 feet, it was still useful. Added to that, Hayate started to use short bursts of KI against Naruto, to improve his tolerance.

One of the more profound improvement was Naruto's chakra control. During the summer, he persuaded his ji-san, to allow him the use of more shadow clones. The Sandaime was a little apprehensive at first, but some trial and error, the two found out that Naruto could train with ten shadow clones without suffering any backslash.

After mastering water-walking a few months ago, Naruto had started levitating a kunai on the palm of his hand. He added the first step of shape manipulation soon thereafter and added a spin to the kunai. It didn't take long for Naruto to create his own deviation of the exercise and added a leaf and a pebble to the spinning kunai. He tried to move the three items in a circle in his palm, this meant, that he had to constantly adjust his chakra-output for the different items.

In a moment of inspiration, the young blond had figured, that he could use the clones to work on both chakra control and his taijutsu. He left four of the ten clones on his self-invented exercise, while another four started performing taijutsu katas on the water. The remaining two clones were set on sparring, on the water as well. Having two clones spar had the advantage, that he could see his own flaws a lot easier from their memories.

Naruto's daily routine after his integration into team Hayate changed a lot. After his morning exercises, Naruto would venture into training ground 42 and work with his team until lunch. In the afternoon, he either trained one on one with someone or just kept up with his skills for a few hours, before meeting with Gai to work on his taijutsu-style. According to his sensei, they would soon start working on the easy stances of the _Shio no ken_ and the development of his own style, while simultaneously working up on the difficulty of his father's style. Needless to say, Naruto was thrilled.

His evenings were mostly occupied by fūinjutsu studies or going out. One other change he made, was starting his day at 4 a.m. like Gai, but instead of running around the village, he did his usual physical work-out. Suffice to say, that he went to bed rather early.

The biggest impact of his training and the now regularly dangerous missions however, was visible in his spars with Hana. Even though Naruto was still a tad weaker, Naruto won the majority of their spars. The experience he gained from fighting during missions and training with his team, had honed his instincts. He was simply put the better fighter. During all their sparring sessions Naruto also got to know Hana a little better. Since he knew about her interest in medical ninjutsu he introduced her to Koji and the two of them got along rather well.

Naruto learned to handle killing disturbingly easy, with good reasoning, at least according to him. After all, he killed his enemies not only because the missions required it, but also because they kind off deserved it. After his first B-rank he looked up, what crimes the various nuke-nin had committed and it made him sick. As a nine-year-old, soon-to-be-ten, his mind couldn't understand why someone would do those unspeakable things. Subsequently, he simply figured, that bandits probably weren't much better and no one would miss them greatly.

Even though he had been in other fierce battles, he didn't get those feelings of immense exhilaration again. It was much more subdued and burned down to simple enjoyment of a good fight.

Fūinjutsu was still somewhat of a sore point for Naruto. While he did make progress, and had started with level four, it was still slower than he'd like it to be. His social life on the other hand kept improving. He still often had breakfast with Gai, provided by said green beast and lunch almost always with his team. He had dinner predominantly by himself, but still met up with his former class-mates from time to time or sometimes again with members of his team or Yūgao.

On one such occasion he had also had the distinct pleasure of meeting his predecessor, one Anko Mitarashi. At first, Naruto had been terrified of her. Two years ago, he would've probably started a shouting match with her, about how much better ramen was than dango. Fortunately, shinobi-life had further mellowed him out a little and he simply scoffed. That however, triggered Anko quite a bit. A few moments later, his team mates – and dare he say friends – were holding their stomachs, laughing, while Anko was threatening him with multiple 10-foot snakes.

They called it a 'rookie-mistake'. Never insult dango in Anko's vicinity. The newly dubbed snake lady, also found perverse pleasure in dropping heavy innuendo around the nine-year-old. Naruto's reaction to that particular line of teasing varied. While he had had to study the body of both males and females for his academy exams, and knew about the technicalities of that, he was nine years old – girls were still icky.

In the end, however, Naruto had to admit, that the young women with a sadistic streak a mile wide, was quite fun to hang out with. She even promised Naruto to introduce him to training ground 44, her home away from home and an area he hadn't dared to venture into yet. Plus, Yūgao had explained him Anko's situation. As the former apprentice of Orochimaru, she had to endure a lot of nasty whispers and accusations, since many people, both civilian and ninja, were still suspicious of her. Naruto felt some kind of kinship to her. Anko herself, found Naruto absolutely adorable.

 _Flashback_

 _9\. August 1299_

 _It was Monday evening and Naruto was walking home from Yakiniku Q, after another outing with his former classmates. He had just rounded the corner into an empty alley, when he felt a cold shiver run down his spine. A second later, he felt himself being embraced from behind, with his head being squashed into the generous assets of a certain kunoichi._

 _"Ohayo Naru-chan, where are we heading?" The young blond sighed in defeat, he knew there was no way for him to escape that particular women._

 _"Home," was his simple answer. He was tired and not really up to a verbal sparring with the slightly insane kunoichi._

 _"Oh? Mind if we share a bed Naru-chan, I heard rumours about your outstanding stamina," she continued seductively. The whole thing went a little over young Naruto's head though._

 _"Er, you do realise that I'm only nine, right?"_

 _"Meh, can't start training them too soon I say. And how comes you don't call me nee-chan like Yūgao?" Anko asked, releasing her victim. Naruto could almost hear her pouting before he turned around and actually saw it._

 _"That's simple, you're more the crazy snake-lady type than the nee-chan type," Naruto explained._

 _"And how do you determine that?" Anko asked sternly, crossing her arms below her bust, accentuating her assets even more._

 _"Well, that's quite simple to be honest. Generally, people I call nee-chan don't cut me only to lick my blood. Neither do they leave me alone in the forest of death, in the lair of a cluster of enraged, gigantic spiders in the middle of the night," Naruto deadpanned._

 _"Well, you asked me to teach you stealth. It's not my bad, that you woke them," Anko replied haughtily._

 _"You dropped my gama-chan in there! And when I went to retrieve it, you threw a bloody explosive-tag down there, causing utter havoc. Plus, I asked you to teach me after you snuck into my apartment, somehow getting past all my traps and injected me with poison! That doesn't speak for you either. Face it, you're crazy!"_

 _"Hey! I had the best of intentions there. I only wanted to improve your resistance to poisons," Anko said indignantly, skipping over the 'little' spider-incident. "I was looking out for you, that's what family does. How would I know that the fur ball pretty much makes you immune to poisons anyway?"_

 _"Uhh…" Naruto facepalmed. "Alright, here's the deal. You stop trying to kill me and I call you nee-chan?"_

 _"Deal!" Anko exclaimed, pulling Naruto into an embrace and subsequently almost suffocating him with her breasts._

 _"Air, Anko-neechan!" the blond boy wheezed. "Need air!"_

 _Flashback end_

Obviously, not everything was always sunshine. There were the minor injuries and scars every member of Naruto's team earned him- or herself. In one particular fight against a trio of chūnin-level nuke-nin, Naruto was blindsided and took a kunai to the knee. It was only thanks to Koji's timely treatment, that his shinobi career didn't end then and there.

However, there was one thing, that vexed Naruto quite badly – the chūnin-exams. The exams had been scheduled to take place in early August, in Kirigakure and therein lay the problem. Ever since the Yondaime Mizukage Yagura took over the village, weird things tended to happen. It started a few years after the end of the 3rd shinobi war with the introduction of lethal genin-exams, which earned the village the nickname 'Village of the Bloody Mist'.

A few years later, Yagura started spreading word, that bloodline users were unnatural freaks. The defamation continued, until in 1296 Yagura began exterminating shinobi, that possessed a Kekkei Genkai. The so called 'blood-purges' started out in secret, and bit by bit, whole clans were slaughtered. All of this however, only came to light recently. Rebels established themselves in Mizu no Kuni and the information about the blood-purges started spreading over the borders. This led to Naruto's ire, the chūnin-exams had been called off.

Naruto would never admit it to anyone, but he knew he was a little childish about the whole thing. People were dying, because they were born with certain gifts and here he was complaining about not becoming chūnin for another six months. However, it was still annoying, especially because he knew, that he had the battle prowess of a chūnin. Even his team mates had told him so. While all three of them still outclassed him in taijutsu, in all-out spars Naruto held himself well.

The only problem: showing to the elders and the Hokage what he was capable of. Plus, chūnin were supposed to show leadership capabilities and Naruto found it rather difficult to demand respect as a nine-year-old. That was why the chūnin-exams were so important to him, a field promotion was just much less likely. With no other choice, Naruto accepted his situation and kept training, which is why, we find him currently screaming like a little girl, running through the Forest of Death.

"C'mon foxy-kun, they're just icky, little spiders!"

 _-xXx-_

Later, Naruto would wonder how everything went to shit so fast, right now he was preoccupied with staying alive. The mission started out simple enough. Team Hayate was tasked with the retrieval of some documents from a Dead Drop in the east of Fire Country. After travelling two days straight, the team arrived at their destination early on the third day. Thanks to Koji, finding the Dead Drop was easy enough, he simply had to check the ground for a small cavity with his earth manipulation.

As soon as Hayate had the scroll stored away and the team was about to head back, the sound of crashing and breaking wood could be heard. The four shinobi turned simultaneously towards the sound, only then noticing the huge wave of water rolling towards them, mowing down everything in its way.

The team dispersed in an instant, jumping into trees, escaping the flood and at the same time spreading over the area. Looking around from atop a tree, Naruto saw three shinobi with Kirigakure headbands engaging one of his team mates each. He only realized after a moment, that Kiri apparently worked with three man squads, 'definitely have to look into policies of other villages', Naruto thought.

A few seconds later, Naruto jumped towards the closest enemy nin, currently fighting Koji. He landed on a tree close to his target, just as he charged towards his friend. Koji glanced towards Naruto and recognized the signal the blond ninja was giving him in an instant and supressed the smirk, that was about to play over his lips. Right before the Kiri shinobi buried his kunai into Koji's neck, Naruto used the kawarimi to replace himself with his teammate. The enemy's kunai sliced empty air, due to Naruto's smaller frame and a moment later, two kunai were thrust into his upper body, the left into his liver, the right into his heart.

Koji landed beside him a moment later, nodding in gratitude, as a scream ripped through the forest. The two shinobi glanced towards each other, before setting off towards the sound. They came across Emiko still engaged with her opponent in a clearing. The fire and water jutsu being used generated a lot of steam, that obscured most of the battlefield. Sensing their approach, Emiko looked towards the incoming shinobi.

"Hayate-taichō is further along where you're headed. I think it was him screaming," Emiko shouted to them.

"Help her, I'll see what's up with our taichō," Naruto immediately said and dashed off.

Pushing chakra through his coils, Naruto used the shunshin to make multiple small jumps and surveyed the area looking for Hayate. He felt the continued use of the jutsu starting to put a strain on chakra-coils only moments before seeing the Kiri shinobi holding an unmoving Hayate by his neck, a kunai about to plunge into his belly. Naruto winced in pain as he pushed another load of chakra through is body, trying to enhance his speed enough to save his captain from being grievously injured.

The Kiri nin noticed the sudden spike of chakra and had just enough time to jump back from Hayate, before Naruto's kunai cut through the air he had occupied a moment ago.

"Didn't know Konoha was so desperate, that they're starting to send kids to their deaths," the shinobi stated with a sneer. Naruto took the pause to scrutinize his enemy. He seemed average in every aspect. Built, height, looks. Brown eyes, short brown hair, everything utterly non-descript. Taking his eyes of the Kiri-nin, Naruto glanced over his shoulder towards Hayate. He seemed to be alive, although unconscious.

Only his instincts saved Naruto form certain death. His enemy had used the short distraction and charged towards him. A few strands of blonde hair were all he got for his troubles. The two ninja quickly settled into a vicious taijutsu battle, with Naruto being on the defence.

Realising his inferiority, Naruto tried to lure the other shinobi away from Hayate's prone body. He didn't want to risk using ninjutsu in his vicinity. The moment he felt save enough, his hands blurred through hand seals.

"Suiton: Mizurappa no Jutsu (Water Style: Water Trumpet Technique)!"

The Kiri-nin was hit head-on by the huge amount of water. Naruto's surprise over his success lasted only a moment, as the enemy shinobi 'poofed' into smoke, leaving behind a shattered log. Seeing this, Naruto jumped into a tree, constantly checking his surroundings. After a few moments, he realised, that his enemy was probably after the scroll, Hayate had on him. Cursing, Naruto rushed back to where he left Hayate.

 _-xXx-_

"So, you actually managed to get rid of the rest of my team. Rather annoying, but no harm done. I got what I came for, so I'll be off." Naruto heard, just as he dropped onto the ground beside Emiko and Koji, who were protecting Hayate. The enemy ninja was throwing their mission objective carelessly up in his hand. His teammates glanced at him and the Kiri-nin used the moment to shunshin away.

Naruto cursed again and turned towards his teammates.

"Koji make a quick check on Hayate, we have to catch the bastard. How are both your chakra reserves?"

"I'm almost out," Emiko replied, breathing deeply, "but a soldier pill should do the job."

"Hayate-taichō is okay, slight chakra exhaustion and a few superficial wounds. I can take care of it quickly," Koji said, looking up at them.

"No, don't," Naruto said, shaking his head, "If it's nothing serious, let Emiko watch over him, while we catch the bastard. He should still be in your sensory radius, so let's get going. Emiko, make sure Hayate doesn't get harmed, we'll be back soon." Emiko nodded, before her two teammates sped off eastwards. Neither Emiko nor Koji ever thought about questioning Naruto's authority at that moment.

The Kiri-nin made it to the sea between Fire counter and Water country, before he was cut off by Naruto. The blond ninja had instructed Koji to stay back and wait for an opening, while he jumped right in front of his enemy, landing on the water. Further out on the sea, Naruto could make out the sails of a ship. Unlike their last fight, the blond didn't wait for his enemy to talk. Between being fooled by the Kiri-nin earlier and said ninja having injured his taichō, Naruto was rather pissed. He had longed to test his new skills with water manipulation in battle and this was a prime opportunity. He sped through 44 hand seals for his new favourite jutsu and whispered

 _Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu_ (Water style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique)

A huge dragon made of water with glowing yellow eyes coiled around Naruto, who was still holding the bird seal. Suddenly the water-dragon shot forwards towards the Kiri-nin, who jumped into the air, to avoid the attack. Naruto wasted no time and used his _Suiton: Teppōdama no Jutsu_ (Water Style: Liquid Bullets), shooting multiple small, high-velocity water balls at his enemy, hitting him.

The enemy ninja snarled, as he got back on his feet and used a jutsu of his own. All around Naruto, the water started to form some kind of net, trying to capture him. Using the shunshin the young blond made his way towards solid ground. The instant his feet hit earth, he threw multiple shuriken at his enemy. The Kiri-nin realised a moment too late, that Naruto's aim wasn't as bad as he thought and most of the shuriken had missed on purpose. He was tightly wrapped up in ninja wire as multiple senbon shot out of the forest behind, hitting him.

A moment later Koji landed beside Naruto

"That was almost too easy," the Yamanaka said. True to his words the ninja-wire around their enemy suddenly broke, the ninja glaring at Naruto and Koji.

"You're gonna pay for that, you little shits," he snarled and charged towards them. The Kiri-nin was actually able to keep up with both of them simultaneously in taijutsu, showing, that he was probably a jōnin. Naruto signalled to Koji, that they should fall back and the two of them disengaged, grouping up again close to the shore.

"Listen, I have a plan, we have to get him to use some ninjutsu. Let's try to force him onto the water. He should be a lot more confident in his ninjutsu, when has direct access to it. As soon as he shoots something at us, create a mud wall along the shore, hopefully he will try to keep going at us. If he tries to get over the wall, we have him," Naruto said quickly, before flinging a few kunai with explosive tags towards the Kiri-nin.

The two Konoha-nin pincered their enemy, forcing him towards the waterline, by using ranged attacks. As soon as he was on the water, Naruto used another water dragon on him. The young blond was starting to feel the toll all the jutsu he used until now, took on him. The Kiri-nin however raised a water wall, deflecting the attack and immediately sped through another set of hand seals.

 _Suiton_ _:_ _Miwaku-tekina mizu no Jutsu_ (Water style: Captivating Water Technique)

As before, a net of water shot out of the sea and towards Naruto and Koji. Naruto had just enough time to realise, that the water had an unusual hue to it, before Koji's mud wall rose in front of him. Quickly creating two Kage Bunshin, Naruto grabbed Koji and used the _Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu_ (Earth style: Hiding Like a Mole Technique) and the two ninja vanished into the earth. Koji saw how one shadow clone used the Henge to transform into a copy of himself, just before he was surrounded by earth.

Koji had no idea what Naruto was planning and decided to stay where he was, until he could feel Naruto on the surface again. Naruto however was speeding through the underground towards the mud wall. On the surface the Kiri-nin was just running atop said mud wall, and prepared another jutsu. Just as he reached the top he looked down towards his two adversaries and shouted.

 _Suiton: Mizurappa no Jutsu_ (Water Style: Trumpet Technique)

The shinobi overpowered the rather simple jutsu immensely, creating a giant stream of water tearing down on the two shadow clones. However, he was unable to see the results of his attack, as all of a sudden pain erupted in the nape of his neck and not even a second later everything went dark.

Naruto had used his underground travel within the created mud wall and only waited for the enemy nin to jump over it. At soon as he had heard the ninja shouting his jutsu, he moved himself to the surface, appearing right behind the Kiri-nin. A simple kunai into his back did the job.

The enemy shinobi didn't even make a sound, discounting the 'thud' Naruto heard, when the body dropped from the 15 feet high mud wall down onto the ground. Naruto jumped down, landing beside his dead enemy, breathing heavily. The fight had been truly exhausting. Koji appeared beside him a second later.

"That was impressive Naruto. Never thought about using the Moguragakure together with a mud wall," Koji commented, before taking back the scroll the Kiri-nin had stolen and sealing up the body.

"Why are you sealing the body?" Naruto asked. He knew there were secrets to be found in the bodies of a few shinobi, but it was rare.

"Because it's time for you to get a new apartment. I know that guy, he's listed in ours and Kumo's Bingo Book. Sadao Mori, the _U~ōtāu~ībā_ (Water-Weaver), Kiri j _ō_ nin, B-rank."

"Really! What's so special about the guy? It's not like he was super strong," Naruto said plopping down on the ground a little exhausted.

"He could take us both in taijutsu Naruto, but the real threat is his water manipulation." Koji said and Naruto perked up.

"How comes?" he asked.

"He knows some trick to transform water into ice. Before you ask, it's not the Hyōton Kekkei Genkai. Hyōton users directly transform their chakra into ice, but this guy has some trick to lower the temperature of water while using his jutsu. No one knows how he does it, that's why I'll take the body back too," Koji explained and took out a small book from one of his pockets. "Here he is. As I said he's listed as B-rank, five million ryō. Should be enough for a new apartment, don't you think?"

"Holy shit! Well, that's going to get all of us a new apartment, dattebayo!" Naruto shouted, before blushing a little. He had made headway in getting rid of his verbal tic. Koji just chuckled at the young blond's antics.

"Let's get going Naruto, the others are probably already waiting and I'll have to check over Hayate."

"Hai!"

 _-xXx-_

 _9\. October 1299_

Naruto was woken by loud knocking at seven in the morning. It was a Saturday and he had opted to sleep in for once. After the last mission, his team had had the rest of the week off, due to Hayate still recuperating and Naruto had found himself a new side project. Instead of buying a new apartment with the bounty he received for Sadao Mori's head he inquired about other available apartments in the building he currently lived in. Since it's location at the edge of the residential shinobi district between the Hokage Tower and the training grounds was quite good he opted to stay. However, since the apartments were all quite small only low ranked ninja used to live there. Low ranked ninja was, more often than not, synonymous with ignorant about seals and therefore a lot of them cancelled their lease and opted to move out.

Naruto took advantage of the empty apartments and with the help of his jiji bought out the whole top floor instead of only renting it. The boy had to hire someone to make sure he didn't accidently tear down support walls when connecting the four apartments that he now owned and to plan the layout of his new home. Turns out shadow clones are rather useful for construction work. There was still a lot of work to be done and he had to hire additional help for the electricity plumbing, but his new apartment should be ready within one or two months.

Still a little sleepy he opened the door to see an ANBU waiting there. On closer inspection, he recognized the cat mask.

"Neko-neechan! What are you doing here?"

"Hokage-sama requests your presence Uzumaki-san," came the monotone reply.

"Jeez, what's with all the seriousness nee-chan," Naruto muttered and walked back to his bedroom. "Make yourself comfortable, I'll be out in a minute."

True to his word, Naruto was back fully clothed one minute later, his hitai-ate strapped to his forehead. Neko was still standing in front of the door, not having moved an inch. The two walked out of the building and Naruto used the shunshin to the Hokage tower. Walking towards his ji-san's office, Naruto noticed Yūgao still following him, 'what's that all about?' Naruto thought to himself.

Opening the doors to the Hokage's office, Naruto walked in casually, waving lazily towards the Hokage.

"Yo jiji, what's up? Why do you have to get me up here the one day I wanted to sleep in?" Naruto whined.

The Hokage set down his brush and looked towards Naruto, his gaze unusually stern.

"Genin Uzumaki Naruto, I received the report about your latest mission yesterday and there are things that need to be discussed." the Hokage said in a grave voice.

Naruto stiffened, something was wrong. Checking his surroundings, he noticed that it felt weird. Naruto wasn't a sensor by any means, but shinobi learned the feeling of nearby chakra, due to simple exposure and need. There were definitely more shinobi in here than the usual four ANBU guards, the Hokage, Neko and Naruto.

"Hayate-san and Koji-san described your actions in great detail. After all, the mission was supposed to be simple enough, but two individuals of your team were admitted to the hospital upon your return," the Hokage continued.

"Hai, jiji. But Emiko-chan was only a little exhausted and Hayate-taichō had some damage to his chakra network, due to overuse, nothing serious." Naruto said somewhat apologetic, still trying to figure out what he did wrong, for his ji-san to be so serious.

"According to the reports, you took charge as soon as your team's leader was out of commission and were responsible for the kill of a B-rank Kiri-nin," the Hokage continued, ignoring Naruto's interjection and still looking very stern. "Under those circumstances, I have no other option than… promote you to the rank of chūnin."

Naruto stood stock-still, not a single muscle twitching until laughter erupted from Neko behind him and the Hokage started grinning. Naruto noticed how the air shimmered for a second before Hayate, Emiko and Koji appeared in the office, laughing at Naruto's expression. The young blond found his voice after another moment.

"You… you assholes! I was terrified I did something wrong!"

"My apology Naruto-kun," the Hokage said with mirth in his voice now, "but it was not my idea. Apparently some ANBU wanted to get back at you."

"Oh, they're going to pay for that, may kami be my witness," Naruto was about to continue his rant, but a scroll hit him straight in the head. Taking the scroll his looked towards the Hokage questionably, but the Sandaime only motioned form him to open it. Naruto channelled some chakra into it and a standard Konoha chūnin-vest appeared. Naruto held it at arm's length, marvelling at it, but was interrupted again.

"Now Naruto-kun, since you made chūnin, there's something I wish to tell you. The people in this room are already aware of it, so there's no need for them to leave. You can go celebrating in a few minutes," the Hokage explained.

Naruto was fidgeting a little, wondering which secret his ji-san would finally trust him with.

"Naruto-kun, when you were younger, you asked me, why many of the villagers had some unjustified dislike for you. I think it's time for you to get an answer," the Sandaime explained.

"Erh Hokage-sama, Naruto is aware of the kyūbi," Hayate interjected, a little flummoxed. After all, the team had discussed the topic already and it was Naruto who had started the discussion.

"Oh, is that so?" the Hokage asked, with a maniacal twinkle in his eyes. He seemed to rather enjoy the situation. "How would you know about that Naruto-kun and since when?"

"I know, that you know, that I know jiji," Naruto said with conviction. "Gai-sensei told me, that there's very little you're not aware of, especially concerning me. And you should know, what's in the first chapter of that fūinjutsu book you bought me." The Sandaime chuckled a little before answering.

"Hai, hai Naruto-kun, I knew. I just wanted to see you squirm a little more, the last few minutes were quite entertaining. Now, get out of here. Go celebrate or something." Hiruzen said, motioning for them to get a move. "Oh, and Naruto-kun, how about we meet at Ichiraku's for dinner, yes?"

"It's on your tab old man!" Naruto exclaimed before rushing out of the office. The Sandaime's personal guards cringed a little while watching their boss slam his head onto his desk repeatedly. Mutterings of 'That's not what I meant' and 'I should've known' could be heard.

-xXx-

 _10\. October 1299_

Instead of immediately celebrating Naruto's promotion, it had been decided to have a little party on the next day, since it was also Naruto's birthday. The young blond spent the morning of his birthday training. Hana was more than ready for a few spars, but only after congratulation him on his promotion. She didn't forget to wish him a happy birthday either.

Since there was no team practice on weekends and Naruto wanted to keep his afternoon free, he followed up the spars with his physical work-out. The remaining time until lunch, he spent working on his taijutsu. Although Naruto had stuffed himself with ramen just the previous evening, he decided for another visit to Ichiraku's for lunch. After all, the party would be held at Yakiniku Q and there was no way for Naruto to spend his birthday completely without ramen.

His walk to the ramen stand was rather curious for Naruto. He had never walked through the village during the kyūbi-festival all on his own. Even last year, he spent most of the time in his apartment and only went into the village with his ji-san. He learned that lesson early on, when he had to be saved by ANBU from a mob of drunken villagers.

Fortunately for Naruto, such violent gatherings were very rare and he never had to suffer through them. He had to endure the glares and nasty remarks, the loneliness and isolation of his younger years, but his ANBU guard always made sure that no one ever physically harmed him. At least not adults.

Wearing his chūnin flak jacket, he noticed, that most of the civilian crowd simply ignored him. There was the occasional idiot still glaring at him, but it was rare. Naruto didn't know whether he was ignored because the people's opinion of him had changed slightly for the better or because they simply didn't recognize him. Either way, he was quite content with it, especially since most ninja gave him a respectful nod.

Arriving at the ramen stand, he received another round of happy-birthday wishes and was informed, that his meal was on the house today. Naruto decided not to go overboard, it wouldn't do to abuse his first friends' generosity. Halfway through his meal, Naruto was interrupted by a very welcome voice.

"Ohayo Naruto-kun. Happy birthday!" Naruto's head towards the owner of the voice and smiled.

"Hey Neko-neechan. Thanks, how are you?"

"I'm perfectly fine, but I was actually looking for you."

"What for? I thought we were meeting at Yakiniku's?" Naruto asked, before another mouthful of noodles vanished between his lips.

"Well, I wanted to give you your birthday gift a little early." Yūgao replied grinning. Naruto didn't like that grin one bit and became a little apprehensive.

"What are you planning?" he asked, fear laced in his voice.

"Well, you see, your new vest clashes horribly with that red trim on your hoody. And you have easily grown another five inches since you bought that outfit. How tall are you now, 4'10"? Finish your lunch, we're going to Hirashi's, Emiko-chan is meeting us there!" she exclaimed happily. Naruto had never seen the purple haired kunoichi so giddy.

-xXx-

One year ago, Naruto had enjoyed buying new equipment and a new outfit together with his ji-san. After today he actually hoped, that he wouldn't grow anymore. He was also certain, that women were evil. Obviously, shinobi clothing should primarily be functional and aesthetic only secondarily. His two female friends however, made sure, that Naruto's new outfit was pleasing to the eyes as well.

After two gruesome hours of switching clothes, Naruto exited Hirashi's shop with his new outfit. Naruto, or rather Yūgao, decided on the standard black 'ANBU-style' pants. Instead of the previously black bandages, they were now red and finished off by black sandals. Since red was apparently a no-go directly under the green flak jacket, he now wore a black high-collared shirt. The sleeves ended just below the elbows, an elastic band holding it in place. On both upper arms were two small, red Uzumaki swirls and he bought a bigger pair of red fingerless gloves. Due to his shirt being open in the front from his collarbone upwards, Naruto was wearing a fishnet-shirt underneath. His flak jacket was closed only up to his collarbone as well, it was 'stylish' according to Emiko.

Since he was in the shop anyway, he stocked up on kunai and other equipment as well, which was now sealed into a scroll together with two similar sets of clothing to the one he was currently wearing. In hindsight, it was probably not the brightest idea, since birthday gifts for ninja are usually equipment oriented. After returning to his new apartment, Naruto took a nap in order to recover from the insanity that was girls.

-xXx-

It was definitely the best birthday party Naruto had ever had. His friends Shikamaru and Chōji had come, as well as Gai and Hana. While Gai's gift was appreciated, Naruto decided against wearing the green spandex-suit. Having just bought new clothes, made a passable excuse. His team was of course there, together with Yūgao and Anko. Emiko had even brought her four-year-old sister, Kiyomi, along. Their parents had been merchants and died a few years ago, while travelling between villages. Ever since then, Emiko had been taking care of her with the help of friends. The little girl looked quite similar to Emiko, her hair being a shade darker and was absolutely adorable. She rather enjoyed all the attention she got, although Emiko tried to limit Anko's influence at least a little.

Out of the many gifts, his team gave him by far the best. They put their money together and got Naruto a brand new ninjatō. It was a simple sword with a black sheath and black handle. Red ribbons crossed over the hilt, perfectly complementing his new outfit. Otherwise there was nothing out of the ordinary about the blade.

"Yūgao-chan mentioned that your training in water manipulation is almost completed, so we thought you would need a sword sometime soon anyway. A katana would've been too big for your current body and anything like a tantō would've been too short to really get into reach, so we got you something in-between. It's not chakra conductive, but you would only need that later anyway." Hayate explained.

Midway through their meal, Shikamaru addressed Naruto. "You know Naruto, while you deserve that promotion, I wished you were still a genin."

"Huh? How comes?"

"When I mentioned to my mother yesterday, that you were promoted, she really got on my case. Father is quite happy with me being still in the academy, I only heard him muttering something about troublesome, insane prodigies. Mum however, decided that she had to up my training to at least keep somewhat up with you. Troublesome women…"

"Yeah, dad said he would accelerate my training as well. Even told me how happy he is, that I made friends with you." Chōji interjected.

"Look at the bright side guys, you get out of the academy and can take the chūnin-exams right after it. They should be held in Konoha right then." Naruto said.

"Troublesome…"

The rest of the evening flew by, even though Emiko had to head home rather soon to put her baby sister to bed. Naruto himself fell asleep with a smile on his face.

* * *

 _Ninja – A how-to, Chapter 5 Bukijutsu_

One of most versatile arts when it comes to ninja is bukijutsu. It can be argued that it is so versatile because it is very generalized. Weapons have been in use well before chakra and has thus developed farther. From simple kunai and shuriken to the more sophisticated weapons such as swords, kusarigama and so on.

It is important to have a general foundation in bukijutsu and at least theoretical knowledge of most weapons and their capabilities. While mastering any weapon will require a great deal of dedication it is interesting to note, that not only the art itself is versatile but the weapons themselves often too. Incorporating chakra into your chosen weapon opens almost limitless possibilities. It can be taken even a step further by integrating chakra into the creation of weapons. It was only recently, that the new hidden Village in the land of waters received seven extremely powerful weapons that were created in such a way.

Fighting a master of any weapon is always a challenge simply due to the difference in range. It is rare, that one can defend himself with taijutsu (even enhanced by kunai) against a true master of any weapon. As such another shinobi art is often required to handle such an opponent. However, due to chakra infused metal, weapons are often capable of their own ninjutsu and as such caution is advised.

As with any other shinobi art, any weapon should fit its wielder and general style of fighting. Apart from shuriken and kunai Bukijutsu should also only be picked up after a good basis in the three main shinobi arts is built. It is without doubt, that weapon masters often grow overconfident of the capabilities of their chosen weapon which has been the downfall of many such ninja.

* * *

A.N. So, I finally got everything set up, social network and all that shit. The next chapters will fast forward a little. I think two max. three more chapters until we hit canon-time :) There's still some stuff flying around before reviews come up. I'll put the list of new jutsu after reviews, it's rather annoying tbh.

Both the Kiri-nin's bingo book name and the jutsu are google translate. If someone actually knows japanese, hit me up!

I wanted to clarify how sensor ninja will be handled in this story. A sensor-ninja won't be able to discern between the chakra levels of ninja, when they're standing right beside him. Higher levels of chakra, simply means that they can be spotted earlier, but their 'signal' won't get stronger once it's in reach. I wrote that Koji has a range of half a mile. This range is based on average mid-genin reserves, since skilled jonin are able to surpress their chakra to such levels (again - in this story). The strength of chakra could be felt by that 'sixth sense' I mentioned in this chapter, but as I said, that range is short...

Next chapter there might some fuinjutsu stuff coming up (not certain yet). Just some quick thoughts to this. In this story fuinjutsu won't be drawing some fancy stuff on a paper and then 'poof - magic'. I'll try to make it more scientific (or at least portray it to be scientific). That's btw. the reason I just made Naruto talented in maths out of nowhere..^^ I'm just happy that I worte that he's not interested in math in the first chapter, instead of writing that he's shit at it :)

I pushed back the end of the 2nd shinobi war for 2 years. Originally Minato was 4 years old at the end and therefore Kushina as well. However, it only makes sense that Uzushio was destroyed at the end of the war. Kushina was already in Konoha at that time and her earliest flashbacks show her at about the age of 6+. Updated the timeline in the other chapters...

I received some PM's about the whle Shadow clone issue, so I'm gonna explain it again, without having it in the story... For anyone with knowledge how a computer basically works, shadow clones work the same. You give a command, the thingy does it. No thinking, no intelligence, no own personality (at least in this story). That means that they don't draw conclusions from the information they're gathering. For exmple they would be useful to study geography but horrible for maths (since you have to understand and not only know). Their ability are from start to end of their existence the same. There's a way around my 'nerf' and in time Naruto will find it. A cookie for anyone who figures out how to do it!

Finally Bingo Book. It's shown kind of weird in canon. Anyway, it works as follows. Every village sends its 'wanted-list' to the main bounty-office (yeah, just pulled that out of my hat), like we've seen Kakuzu at. The whole thing gets compiled and the bingo book comes into existence. There are not only nuke-nin in there obviously, as the example of Minato shows. If there's someone killing Iwa-nin, he's getting onto the Iwa wanted-list, whether he's a ninja from a village or a nuke-nin. The five million bounty equals ~425'000 Euro. According to wiki 1ryo=10yen. It's kinda crazy, but if you consider, that Asuma is worth 35 million, I kinda thought it fair...

Reviews:

Noahendless: Nah, that doesn't help either if someone were to go for three masteries ;) It'll just be master in blah-blah and adept in blah-blah for example...

ElisabethMably: Thanks :) The rabbit-thingy was somewhat inspired by 'Trust by my side' by Kuru0. Great story that takes the whole shinobi stuff to a whole other level of seriousness. I only remember that there was something about emotional conditiong, but not what it was... Second part is spoiler-ish and answered per PM.

New jutsu:

 _Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu_ (Water style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique): The Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique shapes a large amount of water into a giant, powerful dragon, which hits the opponent with formidable might, dealing physical damage. The ideal place to use it is near a body of water, but if the user's skill allows it, it is possible to use it even in a place where there is none. The amount of water used will be in proportion with the user's skill.

 _Suiton: Suijinheki_ (Water style: Water Formation Wall): This defensive technique creates a wall of water around the user. Enemy attacks are completely intercepted by a fence of water blown out from the mouth, and is raised from below with tremendous might. The water is blown out in the form of a circle around the user, and it makes for a defence without openings. It is also possible for the user to control the amount of water and duration at will. The wall's strength and resistance change following the quantity of chakra poured down into the water, so a skilful shinobi will be able to build a sturdy one. Furthermore, because the field of vision is maintained even while defending one can easily go on to the next move, which is a great advantage. The wall can also be formed from a pre-existing water source.

 _Suiton: Miwaku-tekina mizu no Jutsu_ (Water style: Captivating Water Technique): Doesnt exist in canon. The user uses water to weave a thight net and capture enemies. It only useful if the ninja is able to transform the water into ice. The chakra infused ice holds the victim in place.

 _Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu_ (Earth style: Hiding Like a Mole Technique): This technique changes earth into fine sand by channelling chakra into it, allowing the user to dig through it like a mole. This effect goes around the body (not just the hands), making it just large enough for a person to move through. The user can pinpoint where they are, despite being underground, by sensing the magnetic forces. They can also sense what is happening on the surface and use that information to launch a surprise attack on the enemy.

 _Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu_ (Earth style: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique): This technique conceals the user underground and drags the object of their attack down into the earth, robbing them of their freedom, leaving them completely unable to move after they're underground. In addition, they can start another attack. This technique is normally used for torture, by cutting into the enemy's neck after it was used.

 _Fūton: Daitoppa_ (Wind style: Great Breakthrough): The Wind Release: Great Breakthrough is a technique that creates a gust of wind, whose scale and usage varies depending on the user. If used by a superior shinobi, it has enough destructive power to knock down a large tree. The wind from the squall can blow away all things in the user's line of sight. The technique can also be used in the form of a devastation stream of wind expelled from the user's mouth.


	7. Progress

Sooo, it's been a while I guess. It's not really important why I haven't updated, so I won't make excuses.

However, desipte my absence I have not been idle. Big parts of the story have been changed rewritten and the chapters have been updated. I honestly suggest rereading it (fortunatley it's only ~40k words). I'm not certain whether I'm back for good, but I'll do my best. This is my shortest chapter to date, since I wanted to get the ball rolling and the stuff happening next chapter is rather heavy, so I wanted a clean cut. I probably forgot something I wanted to mention, but I'll just add it later. At the end of the chapter big A.N. with some info that was deleted from previous A.N.'s...

* * *

 _What happened last time_

 _"Look at the bright side guys, you get out of the academy and can take the chūnin-exams right after it. They should be held in Konoha right then." Naruto said._

 _"Troublesome…"_

 _The rest of the evening flew by, even though Emiko had to head home rather soon to put her baby sister to bed. Naruto himself fell asleep with a smile on his face._

* * *

Chapter 7

 _21\. February 1300_

The seasons in Konoha and Hi no Kuni in general had always been mild. It was a fact that carried over into the new century. Thus, it didn't come as a surprise to anyone, that early in February the first signs of spring were visible. Although the days were still short, daffodils and daisies reared their heads. The trees had had barely lost their leaves before they bloomed anew. It was a long-standing rumour, that the forests around Konoha were created by Hashirama Senju, the Shodai Hokage. Although it was truly only a rumour, the mere presence of the _Shinobi no Kami_ had strengthened the plants around the village. The Shodai's chakra still lingered in the surrounding nature and made the forests even less susceptible to the short winters of Hi no Kuni.

Life didn't change a whole lot for Naruto after his promotion to chūnin. Sleep, eat, train, interlaced with meeting friends and some missions. In short, it pretty much stayed the same. Early in November Shikamaru had informed Naruto, that he was starting to attract fangirls. Apparently, word got around that a ten-year-old (actually nine, but that one day was ignored) was promoted to chūnin.

Unfortunately for his fan club and fortunately for Naruto, he didn't spend a whole lot of time in the village itself and after being informed of the threat, Naruto made even more liberal use of the _shunshin_. Although annoying, Naruto _did_ feel some kind of accomplishment over the fact, that he got admirers. For him it meant, that either the villagers started to acknowledge him or that the younger generation stopped giving a shit about what their elders told them.

What made the situation even more hilarious – at least according to Shikamaru – was the emotional turmoil that had been flitting over Sasuke Uchiha's face when he heard about the young chūnin. On one hand the young Uchiha's mien showed gratitude for getting some of the girls off his back. On the other hand, he clearly resented Naruto for already being chūnin while he was still in the academy, even though they were the same age.

On another note, the chūnin-exams had been held in Konoha recently. While Naruto obviously didn't participate, he and a few of his friends went to watch the finals. Both of Hana's teammates were promoted in the aftermath and the Inuzuka heiress could finally pursue her dream of becoming a veterinarian. The little bets Naruto made in the finals bolstered his gama-chan too. He didn't have much to spend his money on and all the C-ranks and occasional B-rank led to Naruto accumulating quite some savings.

Naruto's skill kept improving steadily over the months. He had mastered the second step of water manipulation a few days ago. As planned, Naruto wanted to pick up kenjutsu training as soon as possible. However, neither Yūgao nor Hayate knew a style, that fit Naruto. Hayate used the standard _Konoha-Ryū_ (Leaf-Style), which relied mostly on heavy slashes and was meant to overpower an enemy. As with taijutsu, Naruto opted for a more evasive and precision based style.

Yūgao's _Gekido suru mizu megami no dansu_ (Dance of the raging Water-Goddess) incorporated those two characteristics. However, as the name suggests, the style required a female's elegance that Naruto could never hope to achieve.

Left with no other option, Naruto had once more made use of his parents' vast collection of knowledge. To his surprise, he found multiple scrolls regarding Yūgao's kenjutsu-style in the jutsu-vault. Interestingly, the scrolls were obviously written by his mother's. Naruto had read her last words to him often enough, to recognize her handwriting anywhere. Yūgao had once mentioned, that her style wasn't complete yet and that her former sensei had died prematurely. The presence of the scrolls answered another of Naruto's questions concerning his upbringing.

Of his three former ANBU guards one was the son of one of his mother's dearest friends. If not for clan traditions, Kushina would've been Itachi's godmother. The other had obviously been taught kenjutsu by his mother. That left only Inu of whom Naruto didn't know the connection to his parents.

Naruto didn't ponder long on the question of Inu's relation to him, as his eyes landed on a set of scrolls with the Uzumaki swirl on them. He had never had the time to completely scour his parent's collection of scrolls, whether ninja-related or not. There was simply too much knowledge. Therefore, he had only looked into the library or jutsu-vault when he needed something specific. In his own apartment, Naruto only kept stuff he was currently working on, like his taijutsu.

Reading through one of the scrolls, Naruto realized that he struck gold. It seemed, that his mother based her own style on the _Uzumaki-Ryū_. However, for the moment being, Naruto decided to keep the scrolls to himself, since he didn't exactly have an explanation as to where he got them. There was still enough for Yūgao and Hayate to teach him though. They put him through the standard ANBU kenjutsu training, which meant basic stances, elementary attack patterns and counters. It was the common practice for ANBU operatives to receive this kind of training, since they had to be able to handle a blade at least to a certain degree.

Due to the limited amount of time Naruto spent on kenjutsu, Yūgao also showed him an exercise to further his control of water. While his water manipulation was technically considered 'mastered', there was always things you could improve on. The idea was to infuse a small amount of water with your chakra and simply play around with it. For example, forming a ball and let it hover over your hand. It was said, that the Nidaime Hokage was capable of forming multiple, tiny water dragons and let them circle his body. The exercise not only improved his water manipulation, but also pure chakra manipulation and functioned as an introduction to shape manipulation.

While his water manipulation was nowhere near the level of Tobirama Senju, there was little sense in devoting all his time to that one goal. As such he started working on his minor air affinity. His ji-san had allowed him to use a few more Kagebunshin for his training and while being slower than with his water affinity, there was definite improvement.

In contrast he learned only one new jutsu that being the _Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu_ (Fire style: Great Fireball Technique). After working on collaboration attacks with Emiko, Naruto realized he could do them with shadow clones as well. Due to his affinities, it was a rather hard task to learn a fire jutsu, but the advantages easily made up for it. The timing with his clones was still a work in progress however.

After reading _Ninjutsu for dummies_ Naruto realised that the Hiruzen guy really knew what he was talking about. The name also felt familiar somehow, he was sure he had heard it somewhere before. The book talked a lot about ninjutsu mastery or rather how no ninjutsu ever is mastered. According to the book only a fool would call himself master of any ninjutsu.

There was always a way to make it better. To use less hand seals, to build the chakra faster, to mold the chakra faster, to use less chakra for the same result, to vary the density and speed of the jutsu. There were so many things that could be adapted to fit any situation with any jutsu, that there was always something new to be learned. As such Naruto made his mission to improve the jutsu he already knew. He was aware that it would be stupid to waste time for only tiny improvement on a single jutsu and it was a balancing act when to call it quits and be happy with the result. To this day his proudest accomplishment was bringing the hand seals for his _Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu_ (Water style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique) down to 18 from previously 44 thanks to the added shape manipulation training.

Emiko was also making progress on her original jutsu and it turned out to be quite interesting. Inspired by Naruto's training to cut down on hand seals, she was trying to create a seal-less jutsu. She was rather tight lipped about it and Naruto didn't yet know enough about chakra- and jutsu-theory to understand her notes completely.

Much like with his kenjutsu, Naruto was a little grumpy about his fūinjutsu. While he still made progress, it was annoying having to research lots of different things only to get one step further. Level four dealt a lot with elemental sealing and it required theoretical knowledge in all five basic chakra elements, so he had a lot of research to do. It also touched on chakra conversion so it required further study on how chakra gets converted into elements.

Naruto's other studies were progressing as usual, since he learned most of the things from his team, strategy with Hayate, genjutsu with Koji and of course his bunshin were often working on his chakra control.

-xXx-

"Halt, Naruto-kun!"

The blond ninja sighed. It was the third time Gai interrupted him. It was the first day Naruto was working on the _Shio no ken_ -style. Originally, he should've started with it a few months ago, but Gai decided that he should first work thorough some of the more intense moves of his father's style. It was an odd experience to work on basic taijutsu again and his sensei seemed not content with his performance.

"We should've started with this style instead of the _Hachidori_ ," the spandex wearing ninja mused. "I thought it wouldn't pose a problem, since the style should come natural to you, with your elemental affinity and all."

"I don't what I'm doing wrong though," Naruto whined.

"It's your whole form, Naruto-kun. Although fast paced, the _Hachidori_ is quite rigid. _The Shio no ken_ is almost the complete opposite in this aspect. It's difficult to explain, since I don't have a lot of experience with it. The _Shio no ken_ is more flowing. Don't try to force the stances, but instead let the movements guide you along. Imagine a river. The bed is your instructions and you're the water. The instructions guide you in a direction but leave space for adjustment. Don't be so rigid. Now, try again."

He seemed at least a little more successful with his next try but Gai still didn't look all to happy with his result.

"Alright Naruto-kun, stop," Gai said and walked towards him. "I don't know how to explain to you what you're doing wrong, you will have to experience it somehow. I suggest you try a little meditation exercise. Your water affinity should aid you in this task. I want you to sit on water and infuse it with your chakra, concentrate on how it feels, how it moves. It's important for you to internalize what it means to behave like water. To be smooth and free, to slowly chip away at your opponent and yet have the ability to crush anything in your way," he explained.

Naruto nodded and sighed. The two of them walked back into the village proper for breakfast before splitting up. Afterwards Naruto headed towards training ground 42 to meet with his team.

-xXx-

It was a rare occurrence that Naruto didn't spend his afternoon with his team. Following Gai's advice, Naruto went to his old home away from home, training ground 23. It held a decently sized river and was only rarely occupied, as such Naruto wouldn't be interrupted.

After a few minutes simply sitting on the water, he was getting impatient as he didn't feel anything except the gentle rush of water beneath him. Realising that he was getting nowhere, Naruto started expelling chakra into the water. As the minutes passed and the water around him became more and more infused with chakra, he started to understand what Gai meant. While the river was nowhere massive, it still felt powerful. The water was unstoppable and yet it still took the path of least resistance. It chipped away at obstacles while working around them. This is how is taijutsu should be. Always flowing and evasive, yet unstoppable when given no other choice.

-xXx-

 _18\. March 1300_

Unseen by most inhabitants of Konohagakure no Sato a small figure in black clothes with a mask covering its face was making its way through the shinobi residential district. The figure sneaked its way to a tall apartment complex and slowly walked down its walls towards a window, clearly showing itself to be a ninja. Pausing before a particular window the ninja stayed still before grabbing something from its pockets. After a few minutes the figure put a piece of paper against the glass and a moment later vanished within the apartment.

-xXx-

After five months Naruto's living situation had changed drastically. Due to the training and missions he didn't have all that much time to work on combining his newly bought apartments and hired a crew to help him. He obviously supplemented them with a group of shadow clones to speed up the process and keep the cost in check.

Since he had bought out the whole top floor of the building and with a little incentive to be nice from the Hokage directed at the owner, Naruto was free to do whatever he wanted. Unfortunately, every wall of the main hallway that previously connected the four separate apartments were part of the support structure. As such it was rather difficult to combine them. The leader of the crew he hired suggested razing them after building a new supporting wall right in the middle of the hallways from start to end. As such his new apartment would basically be split in half. The combined apartment was about 30 by 40 feet (9 by 12 meters), which was ridiculously big in Naruto's opinion.

One entered the apartment right into the open living space / kitchen combination that took in slightly less than half of his apartment. The new support wall was built at the same spot as the previous only slightly thicker since every other wall was missing. Thus, the other half of the apartment was larger due to the original hallway being added to it. The workers had to build a new entrance as well, since he didn't want them to enter into his new library / office, which was right across his new living room. Across the kitchen was his new bedroom and between it and the office a big bathroom. Naruto was very happy how everything turned out.

He had however choked on his spit when he saw the cost of everything that had to be done and bought after the rooms had been built. Furnishing a new kitchen and bathroom was expensive as hell, not to mention the new floor that had to be built since there were gaps due to the walls that were no longer there. He also required new furniture to make it actually feel like home and not some empty room. He was reluctant to spend so much of his hard-earned money but it was worth it in the end.

-xXx-

It was 2 a.m. in the morning when Naruto entered his apartment and plopped down on his couch. He pulled down the facemask and smiled, 'mission accomplished', he thought. While the mission may not have been exactly given to him by the Hokage it was just as thrilling. Team Hayate had been off duty for the past four days and would be for another two. Yūgao had asked (begged) the Hokage for a few days off as well and then went on a little vacation with Hayate just the previous day.

Seeing an opportunity Naruto had gone to his parent's house and had taken the kenjutsu scrolls. Breaking into Hayate's and Yūgao's apartment may not have been legal but necessary. Yūgao would be receiving a gift upon their return and Naruto would finally learn his own kenjutsu style, the _Uzumaki-Ryū._ It had been disappointingly easy to break into their apartment to be honest. Admittedly it was only easy for someone well versed in fūinjutsu. While it was simple to copy a seal and activate it, actually countering a seal required real skill and it was one of the reason most shinobi relied on them when it came to the safety of their homes.

-xXx-

A short few hours later Naruto was as usual doing his morning routine with Gai. His sensei had noticed that he wasn't as energetic as usual but didn't ask him about it, everyone had an off-days once in a while. Technically Naruto should be taking time off, but since his mediation in training ground 23 he had made such quick progress in the _Shio no ken_ (Tidal fist)-style, that he didn't want to miss his training. Gai was happy with his progress and was already thinking about how the combination of the two should look like.

"Ne, Gai-sensei, do you know anyone other than the Hokage with knowledge about fūinjutsu?" Naruto asked on their way back to the village. He had finally to made it to level five and this time truly needed help. Messing up with joint seals or advanced structures was disastrous he noticed, even when done by a shadow clone. He truly needed someone to mentor him at least a little.

"As you know, there're very few shinobi or kunoichi dedicating time to actually learn fūinjutsu instead of only applying it. There're some of the old guard that could teach you a thing or two about it, but they probably won't bother. Your best chance is Kakashi, he was the Yondaime's student and from what I know he picked up a thing or two," Gai explained.

Naruto's eyes widened slightly. He hadn't known that Kakashi was his father's student. How did no one ever mention it. Overcoming his surprise, he instead wondered why Kakashi never interacted with him, he probably knew of Naruto's existence. Pushing the issue into the back of his mind for later consideration, he instead turned to Gai again.

"You wouldn't know where I could find him sensei?" Naruto asked. Gai grinned at him before answering.

"Ah, Kakashi is a creature of habit to be honest. I'll ask him for you, it will be easier for me to convince him to help you."

-xXx-

 _14\. July 1300_

Thinking back on the past three months put a big happy smile on Naruto's face. Gai was so impressed with his progress in the _Shio no ken_ (Tidal fist)-style, that they started preliminary trials in combining his two styles. It was going slow but it was finally happening.

His kenjutsu was coming along nicely as well, although he had yet to learn any chakra or ninjutsu moves with the blade. Much as with his taijutsu he needed to be secure in his forms before progressing into complicated attack- and defensive-patterns. Both Hayate and Yūgao had been suspicious at their unnamed benefactor who was able to break into their apartment. Naruto knew that they suspected him at least a little but there were more obvious possibilities, for example the Hokage.

There was not much new when it came to Naruto's ninjutsu. He was still practising his repertoire of jutsu and trying to improve and slightly alter them. One of his bigger accomplishments was a seal-less _Fūton: Reppūshō no Jutsu_ (Wind Style: Gale Palm Technique), which meant he could use the jutsu in the same movement as the actual kunai throw. He needed a little more time to get the aim correct but once that was done, it would be a nasty surprise for any opponent.

His first meeting with Kakashi had been disastrous. After being taught by both Itachi and indirectly the Nidaime Hokage, Naruto expected a certain amount of professionalism from his fellow shinobi. Kakashi was anything but. When he arrived three hours late to their meeting, Naruto lectured him about it and told him that he'd rather learn it all by himself even if it took him years, than not be taken serious by his potential sensei. For Naruto it was a clear sign of disrespect and while he could take such a thing from villagers who were virtual strangers, he wouldn't take it from a man who was supposed to teach him.

Kakashi had looked bored at the blond chūnin's rant, before realising that all around Naruto were books on fūinjutsu and different seal tags. At least the boy hadn't simply waited for him, but used the time for something useful. It was rather unexpected and Kakashi simply said that the next time they would meet three hours earlier. It took Gai to explain to Naruto, that he should just arrive at the same time and Kakashi was basically being punctual in this scenario.

During the actual teaching Naruto realised that Kakashi was quite competent when it came to fūinjutsu, if a little rusty. Kakashi had explained to him, that he had almost been done with level six when the kyūbi attacked and his sensei perished. He had not looked at a book on sealing since. Naruto also quickly put two and two together concerning Kakashi's alternate personality, that being Inu and he had quickly become another brother-figure.

Naruto and Gai were currently discussing the different possibilities how to counter attacks during one of the more rotational defensive manoeuvres the Shio no ken used, when they were interrupted by Yūgao wearing her ANBU gear.

"Naruto-san, Hokage-sama requests your presence," the words had barely left her mouth and she went up in smoke. Naruto had never thought about it, but it made sense, that ANBU would use Kagebunshin for such simple tasks, they were after all the elite and weren't prone to waste time.

"Go ahead Naruto-kun, I'll finish up here," Gai said and started to gather the scrolls with all their notes on. Naruto nodded and using the traditional Seal of Confrontation to concentrate his chakra, he vanished. Gai looked at the spot his student just left with a smile. It was not often that a shunshin was executed with such perfection. His student had become fast enough to leave out the smoke or leaves that were usually created for a slight distraction.

Naruto entered the Hokage tower a few moments later and made his way to his ji-san's office. Hayate was already waiting for him, but the rest of his team had yet to arrive. They only had to wait a couple minutes before Koji and Emiko came in. After a short greeting they all turned towards their Hokage.

"I have a mission for you, which you are rather well suited for. Our intelligence officers have heard rumours about growing unrest in Ta no Kuni (Land of Rice Fields). Since there are only a few ninja clans calling Ta no Kuni their home, many of their residents hired Konoha shinobi for missions. The mission requests have gone down in the last six months and by now have almost stopped completely. We have no authority to investigate in Ta no Kuni and it is not important enough to dispatch an ANBU team to gather some fresh intel.

"You will be sent on border patrol along our shared border for the next three weeks. Naruto will send his Kagebunshin into Ta no Kuni to find out what is happening. I suggest few clones but instead durable, in order for them to stay around for a few days and can act as travellers coming through a village. You will send the standard weekly reports. If the gathered information is not critical leave it out of the report and only inform me after your mission is complete.

"This mission while not of high importance will be considered A-Rank, due to the risk of an international incident if failure occures. Are there any questions?" The members of team Hayate shook their heads.

"Very well, you leave in two days," the Hokage said and handed Hayate the scroll that contained their mission directive.

-xXx-

 _16\. July 1300_

The last two days had been rather hectic for Naruto. Border patrol were always the longest and most tedious missions. You had to be alert at all times, but it was rare that something actually happened. Added to that, border patrol always lasted three weeks which was rather long compared to most standard missions. Not to mention he wanted his first A-Rank to go perfect.

Thanks to fūinjutsu his team would be better equipped than most others, since he was capable of adjusting storage scrolls to their desires, instead of just using the standard ones. For example, food often perished too fast even when stored in scrolls but with some adjustment to the temperature in the created pocket dimension, Naruto could make it last well over three weeks.

He had crafted a few other seals the last few months studying with Kakashi. While even before he had understood the theory behind most seals, creating them was not as easy as he first had thought. While everyone could write down a seal and use it didn't mean they did it right. There were certain unwritten rules on which part of a seal to start with and how you progress thought the writing, since certain parts were more volatile than others. Further doing it right increased the speed at which you were able to write down seals which was an added benefit.

Naruto had since carried a few barrier seals, elemental seals and advanced seal tags with him. They had proven useful more than once already and he was very happy that he soon would reach level six. Being able to apply seals directly to humans and influence their bodies was beyond amazing, even if it would take lots of study.

His team was set to head North towards Ta no Kuni at 6.30 a.m. With 15 minutes left he made his way leisurely towards the main gates of Konoha. He was the last to arrive, although it was still a few minutes before the appointed time. Naruto greeted his teams cheerfully, before turning his focus on his captain.

"Alright, as usual the current patrol is set to return to the village tomorrow. We will meet them tonight and receive a copy of their report. The border to Ta no Kuni is usually peaceful so let's hope for the best. We head out in standard formation, Emiko take the rear, Naruto to the right and Koji to the left, I take point. Let's make some good time and get a good night's rest."

* * *

 _Ninja – A how-to, Chapter 6 Ninjutsu_

Ninjutsu is considered by many the most powerful and prestigious ninja-art. While it is beyond the doubt the flashiest, neither of afore-mentioned characteristics are true in my opinion. The power of any discipline lays with the practitioner and prestige is not something to be looked for in the first place, when dedicating yourself to any ninja-art.

Ninjutsu requires dedication that is unlike most other disciplines a ninja learns in his lifetime. Due to the popularity of ninjutsu, the amount of jutsu available to learn is staggering and unlike with other ninja-arts the different techniques can be completely disjointed from each other. Most other ninja-arts build up on each other, while ninjutsu more often than not can be learned independently of previously learned jutsu.

As such is important for every practitioner of ninjutsu to understand that quality trumps quantity in most cases. It is an interesting facet of ninjutsu, that their versatility not only lies in different techniques but also in the usage of one single technique. The amount of chakra used for any given ninjutsu changes its effect drastically and the same applies to the density of the gathered chakra.

Further, although obvious, it is important to note, that the change of a single hand seal changes the effects. This fact is important for the more learned user of ninjutsu, since often less hand seals are used, due to the fact that with enough experience in any given ninjutsu, chakra can be moulded correctly without the use of hand seals.

In conclusion, I advise any ninjutsu student, or even already learned practitioners, to seek versatility and perfection in single techniques instead of versatility due to vast amounts of techniques.

* * *

A.N. Reviews at the end, information first.

Short note: I didn't actually confuse the two books I mentioned. elemental ninjutsu for dummies would have more examples for changes to ninjutsu, while ninja - a how-to is more general information!

Elemental ninjutsu: For me, an affinity only means having an easier time at the element. Whether you have an affinity or not, you can use the element, just certain aspects change. Such as chakra input per intensity, the ease with which you learn, etc.

Fuinjutsu levels:

1\. Kanji and basic Seal-structures:  
Just basics and explanations for fuinjutsu, for example difference between seal arrays or how to actually charge seals etc...

2\. Basic inanimate Seals:

Inanimate in the sense, that the seals are a

pplied to non-living things, i.e. simple tags, simple seals that can be used on weapons, etc. Example: Explosive tags, seals to keep weapons sharp as long as the seal is charged, stuff like that...

3\. Basic barrie Seals

4\. Advanced inanimate Fuin  
Stronger tags, storage scrolls, elemental sealing. example: Fūka Hōin, and lots of other stuff that will come up later (like a seal that changes chakra into the desired elmental nature and stuff like that)

5\. Joint-Seals and advanced Seal-structures  
methods to combine differenct seals and advanced arrays. Example: Storage scrolls that release items at high velocity (like TenTen uses), instead of simple unseal. Explosive tags that also blind or defean enemies...

6\. Basic animate Seals:  
Seals that are applied to to others and interact directly with chakra. example: gravity seals (it's not canon, but...), chakra supression seals (like Kakashis' Evil Sealing Method), etc.

7-10: Novice, Journeyman, Adept, Master (in chosen field)

Fuinjutsu Fields (I'll probably add more later...):

Inanimate sealing (everything from weapon-advancement to chakra transformation seals)  
Animate chakra sealing (everything from biju sealing to chakra surpression seals. It simply has direct influence on someone's chakra...)  
Barrier sealing  
Space/time ninjutsu

Bingo Book:

It's shown kind of weird in canon. Anyway, it works as follows. Every village sends its 'wanted-list' to the main bounty-office (yeah, just pulled that out of my hat), like we've seen Kakuzu at. The whole thing gets compiled and the bingo book comes into existence. There are not only nuke-nin in there obviously, as the example of Minato shows. If there's someone killing Iwa-nin, he's getting onto the Iwa wanted-list, whether he's a ninja from a village or a nuke-nin. The five million bounty equals ~425'000 Euro. According to wiki 1ryo=10yen. It's kinda crazy, but if you consider, that Asuma is worth 35 million, I kinda thought it fair...

Kagebunshin:

For anyone with knowledge how a computer basically works, shadow clones work the same. You give a command, the thingy does it. No thinking, no intelligence, no own personality (at least in this story). That means that they don't draw conclusions from the information they're gathering. For exmple they would be useful to study geography but horrible for maths (since you have to understand and not only know). Their ability are from start to end of their existence the same. There's a way around my 'nerf' and in time Naruto will find it. A cookie for anyone who figures out how to do it!

Sensors:

A sensor-ninja won't be able to discern between the chakra levels of ninja, when they're standing right beside him. Higher levels of chakra, simply means that they can be spotted earlier, but their 'signal' won't get stronger once it's in reach. I wrote that Koji has a range of half a mile. This range is based on average mid-genin reserves, since skilled jonin are able to surpress their chakra to such levels (again - in this story). The strength of chakra could be felt by that 'sixth sense' mentioned before, but as I said, that range is short...

Chakra-control: In this story I'll use three different steps or definitions for chakra control.  
1\. The standard at which Naruto is terrible. It's about the amount of chakra he can seperate from his whole pool in order to use it for jutsu or walk on surfaces, etc.  
2\. This could be called chakra manipulation. It's about the control over chakra once it's in use. In other words, the control he has over a portion of chakra, once it's seperated from his pool (this is important for genjutsu)  
3\. Shape manipulation. Rasengan, 'nough said.

Genjutsu: I'll seperate genjutsu in two branches. The first is the comonly used. Chakra is 'injected' into the victim's on chakra stream, fooling the senses. The second branch I'll call 'enviormental genjutsu'. It uses chakra to make the surroundings appear different. An example would be the _Meisaigakure no Jutsu_ (Camouflage Technique). This will be the branch of genjutsu, that Naruto **can** use. He won't be good with it, but it's possible. This type of genjutsu uses more chakra and is the reason for me explaining the #2 of chakra control. How good a ninja can manipulate the chakra to change the enviorment would be chakra manipulation. Hope this makes sense, now on we go.!

Timeline:

10\. October

1200 A.S. Hasirama/Madara born

1205 A.S. Tobirama born

1228 A.S. Konoha founding Hashirama 28 y/o

1230 A.S. Itawa Senju born (Hashirama son, name from dead brother)

1240 A.S. Natsumi Senju born (Kushina's mother)

1243 A.S. Hiruzen graduation Hiruzen 10 y/o

1250 A.S. Tsunade, Jiraiya born

1255 A.S. End 1st shinobi world war Hiruzen 20 y/o

1265 A.S. Generation Minato born

1270 A.S. Kushina comes to Konoha Kushina 5 y/o

1271 A.S. Destruction of Uzu  
Start 2nd shinobi world war

1272 A.S. Kushina becomes jinchūriki Kushina 7 y/o  
Mito dies

1273 A.S End 2nd shinobi world war Minato 8 y/o  
Jiraiya 23 y/o  
Tsunade 23 y/o  
Hiruzen 40 y/o

1275 A.S. Minato graduation Minato 10 y/o  
Generation Kakashi born Jiraiya 25 y/o

1280 A.S. Kakashi graduation Kakashi 5 y/o (graduation after 1year)  
Minato 15 y/o  
Jiraiya 30 y/o

1282 A.S. Team Minato Kakashi 7 y/o (2years with different team)  
Obito/Rin 9 y/o (graduation after 3 years)  
Minato 17 y/o

1283 A.S. Start 3rd shinobi world war Kakashi 8 y/o  
Obito/Rin 10 y/o  
Minato 18 y/o

1284 A.S Yagura becomes Mizukage Zabuza 8 y/o (2 years younger than canon)

1286 A.S. End 3rd shinobi world war Anko 8 y/o (graduation, apprenticed by Oro 2y)  
Kakashi 11 y/o  
Obito/Rin 13 y/o  
Minato 21 y/o (Hokage within months)  
Jiraiya 36 y/o  
Hiruzen 53 y/o

1289 A.S. Kyubii attack Itachi 5 y/o  
Anko 11 y/o  
Kakashi 14 y/o  
Minato 24 y/o

1295 Kiyomi

1296 A.S. Story start Naruto 7 y/o  
Itachi 12 y/o  
Kakashi 21 y/o

1298 A.S. Graduation / Uchiha massacre Naruto 9 y/o  
Hana 14 y/o  
Itachi 14 y/o  
Kakashi 23 y/o

1302 A.S. Rookie 9 graduation Naruto 13 y/o  
Haku 15 y/o  
Hana 18 y/o  
Itachi 18 y/o  
Hayate 23 y/o  
Anko 24 y/o  
Zabuza 24 y/o  
Kakashi 27 y/o  
Asuma 27 y/o  
Tsunade 51 y/o  
Jiraiya 51 y/o  
Hiruzen 68 y/o

Jutsu-list:

Ninpou: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Ninja-Art: Shadow Clone Technique)

Ninpou: Rasengan (Ninja-Art: Spiralling Sphere)

Ninpou: Shunshin no Jutsu (Ninja-Art: Body Flicker Technique)

Ninpou: Kage Kunai/Shuriken no Jutsu (Ninja-Art: Shadow Kunai/Shuriken Technique)

Ninpou: Bunshin Daibakuha (Ninja-Art: Clone Great Explosion)

Suiton: Teppōdama no Jutsu (Water Style: Liquid Bullets)

Suiton: Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu (Water Style: Water Clone Technique)

Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu (Water style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique)

Suiton: Suijinheki (Water style: Water Formation Wall)

Suiton: Mizurappa no Jutsu (Water Style: Trumpet Technique)

Suiton:Miwaku-tekina mizu no Jutsu (Water style: Captivating Water Technique)

Fūton: Reppūshō no Jutsu (Wind Style: Gale Palm Technique)

Fūton: Daitoppa (Wind style: Great Breakthrough)

Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku (Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation)

Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire style: Great Fireball Technique)

Doton: Doryūheki no Jutsu (Earth Style: Mud Wall Technique)

Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu (Earth style: Hiding Like a Mole Technique)

Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu (Earth style: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique)

Reviews:

paink1ller: They won't really meet until I hit canon time, so ~2years (at least in the story)

LordOfTerror: The interaction will come :)

Rayne Arianna Maranochi: The weapon vault got killed since I had a much better idea! Don't worry tho Naruto will get his badass weapon :)

kaiokenkaizer: Nope that was planned from the start. It won't be too long 'till you see what i plan


End file.
